We at TownNews.com have one very simple mission: To help our
newspaper customers “own the Internet.”

Long-time customers (and friends) have heard me repeat this
mantra over and over: The Internet is another communications
medium. It can be owned, and it can be worth something. Newspapers
have the first right of refusal to own this franchise.

Ask yourself: Who owns the newspaper in your town? (The answer
ought to be obvious. Who owns the radio station(s) in town? Who
owns TV? The cable franchise? And so on.

Now ask yourself: Who owns the Internet in your trade area?

When the Internet was truly “new media” nobody owned it, but
lots of folks saw the opportunity to get in on ownership at the
ground floor.

Local companies tried such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs),
and computer stores made efforts to be the dominant Internet
company in local markets. Radio and TV stations have made efforts
to “own the Internet.”

Nationally, America Online, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Lycos, etc., are
still trying to gain control of the Internet.

The dot-com mania was fueled by greedy and often brain-dead
efforts to own the Internet. Despite the dot-com era becoming the
dot-bomb era, the Internet is still worth owning.

There are 220 million people in the world who regularly use the
Internet, and fully half of those folks live in the United States
or Canada. Once a person has Internet access, his or her media
consumption patterns change.

GartnerG2 completed a survey of 4,398 American Internet users in
October. Twenty percent said they read newspapers less often
because of the Internet, including 10 percent who said they read
newspapers “much less often.” Television and magazine consumption
also were affected dramatically.

The Internet is no longer “new media.” Arbitron and Edison Media
reported in September that “nearly half of all Americans between
the ages o 12 and 34 consider the Internet the most essential
medium to their lives.” Across all ages, the study said nearly 20
percent of Americans consider the Internet as their most essential
medium.”

The U.S. Postal Service and the phone companies have taken hits
because of the Internet. A Gartner G2 survey found thatmore than
half of consumers use postal mail less than they had pre-Web., and
about a third of those polled place fewer long-distance telephone
calls.

So where to newspapers stand in the battle to “own the
Internet.”

Mixed results.

On the good news front:

The classified news is especially encouraging to newspaper
executives. In many cases, online classifieds account for a vast
majority of online revenues. Even Knight Ridder – the nation’s
largest chain and a heavy investor in Internet technology – reports
that 72 percent of its online income comes from classifieds.

To sum up the good news it’s safe to say online newspapers
usually are the most visited local site and that the historical
model of “upselling” print classifieds into the Web product works
well for advertisers, readers and newspapers.

But it’s not all good news. Let’s look at problem areas:

NAA funded research conducted by Kannon Consulting says there
will be 22 million new jobs created this decade along with 45
million jobs that will churn. Kannon predicts that the high-tech,
high-paying jobs will tend to be advertised via the Internet while
lower-pay, lower-tech jobs will stick with newspaper
classifieds.

A major opportunity for newspapers is that Realtor.com, the
national real estate listings portal, has been de-listed by NASDAQ
and several of its parent company’s former officials have been
indicted.

The NBR has responded by encouraging brokers through a program
known as Internet Data Exchange (IDX) to aggregate real estate
listings locally – possibly to the disadvantage of newspapers. IDX
is so poorly understood in many markets that aggressive newspapers
might be able to use IDX to become the de facto multiple listing
service in their trade areas.

In summary, because of their local news content and promotional
power, newspapers usually are the most dominant Internet companies
in their trade area. They usually “own the Internet” in their trade
areas.

Some niche advertising, especially employment/recruitment
advertising will remain at risk. Newspapers best chance of
reclaiming dominance in this vertical will be through use of its
local Internet dominance.

Other vertical classified advertising – auto and real estate –
are at risk, but could be dominated by online papers if they choose
to make the effort.

The trick is staying focused on the cause of newspapers “owning
the Internet.”