If you go to the Internet, there's nothing with the same breadth and depth. Hence, the success of The New York Times Syndicate's Your Health Daily and Computer News Daily sites, drawing narrowly focused information from diverse sources and attracting more than a million hits weekly. But they will look for racing information. Some publishers learn this through trial and error. Few publishers devote the resources to cover space as extensively as the 80,432-circulation daily, making it a perfect player to fill that niche.
Some publishers use niche sites as stepping stones to larger Web presences.
Last October, for example, The New York Times launched a site covering the Pope's U.S. tour before rolling out its full service. Others, including the St. Petersburg Times, develop short-term sites for such events as traveling art exhibits. But publishers now find niches so enticing that they make their sites permanent fixtures that may even supplant on-line coverage of local news. While scores of overlapping news sources crowd the Web, and more appear daily, many niches remain up for grabs. Niches also attract national advertisers who often prefer segmented audiences to broad ones.