Telegraphik

I’m a bit confused. First off I live in Montana.So does Maury Povich. Montana is a wonderfully amazing place. A beautiful place. A place with loads of potential both online and offline. But the proprietors of the online presence in this state don’t have a clue. Not that Alexa Stats mean anything. But here’s a clear example of what I’m talking about.

Check out these stats. Now I’m comparing The Missoulian, 901am ( a site I started), and Telegraphik (this site). I’m not going to say anything just yet.

Now Check Out These Stats. Here I’m comparing Montana’s two new media publications one New West which actually serves the entire Rocky Mountain area, Flathead Beacon (managed by New West and backed by Maury Povich),and Telegraphik

Ok, now I’m going to comment. With hundreds of thousands of dollars of investments both New West
and Flathead Beacon, and The Missoulian as well just can’t seem to do anything of any use online. New West kind of gets it. But is seriously lacking in the know how category. New West, and I’m sure Flathead Beacon will both do really well at engaging the local communities offline and do some local offsite publications in fact that’s one of Flathead Beacon’s bread and butters. However they just don’t get the online.

I’m pretty sure from examining the structures that they are both built using Expression Engine and some custom software and honestly their permalink structure just well sucks. Their overall SEO sucks as well. You might be wondering why I think this is a bad thing. And here’s why.

Montana isn’t that big. There are a lot of blogs in Montana. Most all of them are powered on things like blogspot. But the disadvantage to Montanans is we don’t have a solid place to advertise, and we don’t have anything to really leverage online to help push traffic around. No local ‘big blogs’ to take part in to network on. And truthfully this is where both The Flathead Beacon and New West just fall flat on their faces.

It does leave a challenge for publishers like myself. Who I would consider of less value to the community abroad in a place to ’swoop in’ so to speak and really dominate local tech communities like Missoula,Kalispell, and Bozeman.

One thing is for sure I am developing a much more local focus on the web. I see a huge void and a huge lack of understanding locally about the web. I see a huge ability for a new media company to rival just about any of the local media in any city or all cities across Montana with the right brain power.

Hmm. I sense a business plan being developed. What about you what is your local media presence like and what can you do to challenge the local stagnant media presence in your community?

Oh and by the way. I know I’m a stat junkie. It’s a serious problem.