Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What would you do with a newspaper-dot-com's built-in audience?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–36 of 36 posts

Re: Ask HN: What would you do with a newspaper-dot-com's built-in audience?

#31

Post by prawn »

aresant wrote: post #20
timmaah wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our local TV station has done this and has promoted it heavily via on air commercials. It looks like it has given a good boost to their floundering local craigslist knock-off. http://www.wcax.com/

Just FYI that local deals engine is supported by http://secondstreetmedia.com/ which does white label deals sites - very cheap and easy way to test.

There would probably be room for multiple start-ups in this field if they worked quickly. Likely one per country with a few in the US too.

Re: Ask HN: What would you do with a newspaper-dot-com's built-in audience?

#32

Post by yarone »

aresant wrote: post #2

Build a local deals engine a la groupon. Yah this is obvious, but the reason that this works so well for newspapers: a) Newspapers have a built in sales force to sell local merchants on the concept. b) Newspapers attract a hyper-local audience and building a list of people interested in local deals is a money printing asset. c) Newspaper execs, consumers, and merchants are familiar with the model so it's not a hard s…

See http://www.DailyPlatform.com. White label daily deal platform, expressly built for media companies.

Re: Ask HN: What would you do with a newspaper-dot-com's built-in audience?

#33

Post by pragmatic »

Improve the classified ad system.

Our local paper has _horrible_ system. Make sure you take all major credit cards and paypal.

Improve the rummage sale finder. My wife loves rummage (garage sales) and the system is not good.

Our local paper is owned by a large syndicate and I can see the content management system is used by several other local newspapers.

Generally bring your paper into the 21st century. And for Zeus's sake, don't do those stupid pop unders that make me want to ban you in my firewall. It takes more CPU power to view to the paper's website then running a game!

Re: Ask HN: What would you do with a newspaper-dot-com's built-in audience?

#34

Post by talbina »

jcnnghm wrote: post #28

There are three major benefits presented by the internet to traditional media. First, the ability to offer far greater depth and breadth of coverage than could reasonably be offered in print. Second, the ability for the media to be instantly interactive. While letters to the editor did allow some interactivity, they aren't nearly as interactive as what can be done online. Finally, along the lines of interactivity, di…

By any chance, did you found a tax software company that was acquired?

I feel like I've met you after seeing Barhopolis.

Re: Ask HN: What would you do with a newspaper-dot-com's built-in audience?

#36

Post by jcnnghm »

talbina wrote: post #34
jcnnghm wrote: post #28

There are three major benefits presented by the internet to traditional media. First, the ability to offer far greater depth and breadth of coverage than could reasonably be offered in print. Second, the ability for the media to be instantly interactive. While letters to the editor did allow some interactivity, they aren't nearly as interactive as what can be done online. Finally, along the lines of interactivity, di…

By any chance, did you found a tax software company that was acquired? I feel like I've met you after seeing Barhopolis.

That actually may be us. One of my business partners was involved in a company that produced tax and accounting software for Wang Mainframes that was later acquired by ManTech International.
Post reply on HN