It's relatively inexpensive and portable for consumers. To most customers, a complete news package for 35 to 50 cents is a pretty good deal. As a result, we expect to be around for a long time to come, delivering our product in whatever way the consumer wants. The motivation for going on line at least initially was not profits, though that certainly is our longer-term goal. Everyone realizes it is also a way to protect and perhaps extend our classified revenue base.
Newspapers have great opportunities to leverage their leadership positions in local markets.
Newspapers, which have established for years that they are the repository of local news, will not be pushed aside so long as they continue to do their jobs well. That job includes providing the depth of information that competitors probably won't have, and combining it with the visual appeal and easy access that newspapers will need to match their competitors. A number of newspaper sites have done a nice job of making themselves user friendly and visually attractive and have been appropriately designed for online. Gannett has joined a number of other newspaper companies to launch CareerPath, an Internet newspaper employment advertising service. In an effort to build on our regional advertising by linking it nationally, about 25 newspapers have been linked in this venture.