|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Rebecca Hagelin
WorldNetDaily.com
(804) 745-7875
rhagelin@worldnetdaily.com
http://www.worldnetdaily.com
Washington Post.com Racks Up $100 Million
Loss; Implosion Seems Imminent, Says Story in WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON, D.C. - March 14, 2000 (INB)
-- The Washington Post has lost "an eye-popping one-tenth
of a billion dollars so far in cyberspace," says an exclusive
story in today's WorldNetDaily.com edition. The article "Is
Washington Post website imploding? Struggling to transfer local
monopoly to cyberspace, racks up $100 million loss," is
WorldNetDaily.com's http://www.worldnetdaily.com
lead story, written by Paul Sperry, Washington Bureau Chief.
Sperry, quoting analysts and company insiders,
attributes the problems at the Washington Post website to "runaway
spending" on "stylish offices," site content,
repeated site redesign, a large staff and a mid-day online edition.
"Some say the Post broke the cardinal rule of starting a
new business: Don't try to look successful before you are successful,"
says Sperry.
Sperry also provides evidence that the
failings of WashingtonPost.com are affecting the newspaper as
well, "and the Internet site's losses are acting as a drag
on the company's profitable newspaper . . .The company's overall
earnings growth in 1999 was flat, despite fat retailer ad budgets
and lower newsprint prices. Its stock, traded on the New York
Stock Exchange, is testing earlier lows."
The WorldNetDaily.com article points to
the recent departures of several WashingtonPost.com executives
as proof that the site appears to be imploding, including the
announcement last Friday that Alan Spoon, the company's long-time
president and chief operating officer, is quitting. "His
exit comes on the heels of several other recent high-level departures.
Last month, WashingtonPost.com's publisher left. And the Internet
paper's editor and managing editor left before him." says
Sperry.
Having worked as a reporter and editor
for seventeen years with Investor's Business Daily, Paul Sperry
is a recent addition to the WorldNetDaily.com investigative news
team. He also serves as the site's Washington Bureau Chief.
WorldNetDaily.com is an independent news
site whose growth has skyrocketed in recent months: the site
had 9,902,000 page views in February (a 59.5% increase over January)
and 243,000 unique users (a 35% increase over January.) Although
WorldNetDaily.com has been a for-profit company only since October
of 1999, it enjoys more monthly page views than the sites of
many well-established media including the Los Angeles Times,
the New York Post and the Associated Press. |