It's best recognized by the new generation of websites called Portals. Current Radio websites are about a Radio Station. You could call the a Station Brochure; they talk mostly about us; our morning team, contests, promotions - and we supply the content.
Web 2.0 sites are the opposite - they talk about the User (what we call "audience") and much of the content is supplied by the Users themselves – not by the station. The website is more about the town than about the station - and that's the rub. Instead of y102.com and hotcountry.com the site would typically be www.LoveAustin.com or www.OurSpringfield.com As you’ll see, it’s great news – but tough to swallow if we’ve invested our thinking into the first web model. The good news . . .
The new 2.0 cluster model now has all their stations drive all their listeners to one portal site. And because there’s now so much traffic on that one site - the web plays a wonderful trick on us. It's called Search Engine Optimization. The more people use the site - the more people are attracted to it. Not only does our audience use it, but now non-listeners are attracted to it. The new Portal sites attract more users than the five old sites combined. It's a major shift. With that large traffic we can now compete with a daily newspaper and television station. In fact, if you play it right, your cluster's site can become the daily newspaper. (We'll tell you about Citizen Journalists.)
This is a no brainer, home run. We'll show a dozen examples of successful Radio cluster Portal sites – and how they made the move – and the incredible billing they’re doing.
