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is a beautiful thing
Building on lessons from the big shakeout
By Jeremy Schlosberg
The first generation of content sites is fast dying, if not already dead, and as they go so will a lot of the notions their founders held about how to succeed on the internet, chiefly the belief that you need big bucks to build huge audiences in order to generate huge ad revenue.
From the wreckage of the first generation is emerging a second generation of web sites, and for them the motto might well be: Small is beautiful.
Many are being launched not on venture capital but private funding, and they tend to have small staffs and operate sites that serve narrow niches and depend on additional revenue streams beyond advertising.
If first-generation web pioneers spoke the language of zealots, second-generation founders speak the language of small business people.
An example of today’s new breed of content site is Corante.com, a technology news filtering site that launched officially on May 24 after being up unofficially since December.
"We’re positioning Corante to be a service. Editorial certainly is its focus, but as a knowledge management tool of a sort that serves our users, advertisers and the publishers to whom we point our readers efficiently," says Corante founder Hylton Jolliffe.
Corante specializes in one area—technology news and information—divided at this point into eight sub-categories; Jolliffe says there will be 13 by the summer.
Site editors comb online newspapers, magazines and journals each day for what they feel are the best new stories in each category.
Each is presented with a summarizing blurb and a link to the original article.
Corante has 10 employees, is funded by angel investors, and is privately held.
Jolliffe aims to break even by next year.
With its niche focus, Corante attracts a narrow but highly engaged readership, he says—from CEOs and venture capitalists to journalists, tech-related consultants and attorneys.
"I'm a big believer in niche-oriented publishing and think that what's happening online is only continuing the trend that began in magazines and continues to shape the direction of publishing," he says.
"Though I of course hope to have a readership base of hundreds of thousands, I will be pretty happy with tens of thousands in each of the categories we cover."
Who these visitors are is more important than how many there are, he says.
Corante—pronounced core-AUNT—is named after a publication deemed the first English language newspaper, published in London by Nathaniel Butter in 1621. Jolliffe says the idea has been percolating for a couple of years, but he began developing the site in earnest this past fall.
Previous to launching Corante, the 30-year-old Jolliffe spearheaded the development and launch of AsiaSource, a non-profit site devoted to news and information about Asia. He began his internet career at Wolff New Media, the company made famous by Michael Wolff’s book "Burn Rate," which documented its rise and fall.
Jolliffe feels the current shakeout on the internet is making it clear how important it is to build a good small business first before attempting to grow and raise a lot more money.
He believes there’s plenty of opportunity left for well-run businesses to profit online.
"The reliance that we all have on the web for access to information is only going to grow, even as business models evolve and content sites come up with better advertising solutions or begin to charge for access," he says.
Beyond its streamlined operation and niche focus, there are three other key ways that Corante is different than first-generation content sites.
First, its ad model is not built on banner ads.
Corante will focus on sponsorship packages both on the site and in daily newsletters.
"It's not that I'm completely averse to banner ads," says Jolliffe. "I just think there are ways we can better serve our advertisers.
"Part of our business model is our ability to serve very targeted audiences within the tech sector and we feel that by doing so we better enable advertisers, strategic partners, and those with whom we might co-brand or co-produce, to reach their desired audience. And we'll do that in the form of ads that take different formats than the classic banner ads."
A second difference is that Corante doesn’t see the need to reinvent the wheel by generating its own news.
Jolliffe says it makes little sense at this point to add more news and information to the vast amount already available online. But he feels there is an ever-growing need for intelligent filtering of what is put out onto the web day after day, particularly when focused on a niche.
"We’re all inundated with information all the time," he says. "It’s hard to find your way to the articles that matter. Our theory is that it’s better for a knowledgeable human being to point you there than a bot or an algorithm picking out by keyword."
A role model of sorts for Jolliffe is Jim Romenesko's MediaNews, a no-frills site that offers blurbs of and links to news about the media from all over the web.
"He’s shown that that sort of aggregating, community-building model works," says Jolliffe.
But does it work commercially?
Romenesko’s site is contained within the non-profit offerings of the Poynter Institute, a journalism school in St. Petersburg. Corante aims for profits.
Jolliffe believes it’s possible because his business model is not dependent solely upon advertising.
"It’s a part of the model, but out of the gate it’s not a big part of the model," he says. Because the site seeks niche audiences in specific fields, he feels Corante will also find revenue in private-label, customization and syndication services.
Will Corante seek subscription revenue at some point?
"I think it’s possible," says Jolliffe. "There are some signs that people are willing to pay for what we’re doing. If we’re saving attorneys 20 minutes a day, that’s a huge savings for them."
June 6, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Jeremy Schlosberg is the senior editor for new media.
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