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At a time when online content tries to focus on the geography-breaking promise of the Internet, Cox Interactive Media has reformed its operations to stay closer to home and give users what they really want.
The Cox Enterprises Inc. online subsidiary and sister company to MSO Cox Communications Inc. took a pragmatic look at site usage and decided to shelve its four national special interest portals. Now it will focus exclusively its string of 22 local metro content sites, including the flagship AccessAtlanta.com, InsideNewOrleans.com, Lainsider.com and DiscoverOmaha.com.
With direct competition from local portals fielded by the likes of Yahoo! AOL-Time Warner and MSN, Cox Interactive Media hopes to be first in line when it comes to local online advertising revenue, according to Lacey Lewis, chief financial officer.
"We feel like to win in the local market space, we need to be the number-one local site in all of the markets we serve," she says.
But that means adjustment. When the business started back in 1997, the product offerings were broad-based, with up to 15 channels on its local portal Web sites. But after studying the actual usage, CIM found not all content was equal.
"What we have found is that it's really hard to build a business on an entertainment-only site, because people just don't come there often enough," Lewis says. "You are not looking for entertainment four times a week. You might look for it once or twice a month."
While entertainment might make for sexier content, it was more information-driven items that seem to draw the most interest--as long as it is a quick read.
"People do not come to the Internet for the most part to read a long news story," she notes. "They are coming to the Internet to do something, so we have continued to redefine our product, and where we are headed is that we are a local portal exchange."
That exchange focuses on users with busy lives, juggling professional and family duties.
"Our mission is to help them find a restaurant, or maybe to help them buy a car, or maybe help them manage their stock portfolio," Lewis says. "It's to help them with their daily lives."
Of the 22 markets it reaches, CIM runs 11 broadband sites affiliated with sister company Cox Communications Inc.'s cable modem service under the Cox@Home banner. CIM provides all of the local content for the service's local home page.
As with other providers, CIM finds that broadband users come more often and stay longer on its sites. But gearing content for the high-speed Internet is only in the early stages.
"We feel like down the road, yes, that's going to be important," Lewis says. "We are starting to focus on that. To date that has not been a tremendous focus for our company. But clearly, we feel that as the broadband users get more comfortable and there's more out there to offer, that's part of the way that the product will evolve in those markets."
The company also runs a subsidiary called CIM Studios that works with businesses to create Internet advertising. That runs the gamut from creating banner ads to developing advertising strategies.
While the advertising slowdown at the end of 2000 was no secret, CIM weathered the cold front with fewer shivers than many online portals because of its local focus.
"Because we have been locally focused with local advertisers, we have seen a slowdown," she admits. "But it definitely did not come to a grinding halt, and I think we were less impacted than a lot of the online companies because we had not sold to a lot of the dot-coms."
With the revised business plan, CIM is aiming for that local dollar. Internet studies estimate in 2001 and beyond between 48 percent and 55 percent of online spending will focus on local markets.
"Most people do their shopping and do their spending of their discretionary income-80 percent of that within 10 miles of their home," Lewis says. "That's why we believe that this is a great business and it will continue to be a great business going into the future."
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