Allaboutparents and Company-Leader were vertical sites, modelled on Guardian Unlimited, with the idea being to put the various strengths of the paper onto the net, but they have just not had a chance. You can't justifiably shut them down on the question of profitability. I can't believe the Express is going to be the only newspaper without an internet site, which is now such an important part of the brand development of a paper. Hugo Drayton, the Telegraph's new media managing director, agrees that the muddle of the framework behind the sites did not help. Other, more successful sites had better strategies.
Websites are an easy target because they are usually nobody's fiefdom.
They do not offer any short-term return. The owners are doing what anyone new does - looking at where they can trim and cut down duplication. That said, from what I have read and heard they were not operating as viable propositions anyway. But I will be very surprised if they did not reopen something in the next six months, an online and newspaper strategy which complement one another. That Desmond is taking a cost- minimising approach to the internet is perhaps reflected in his response to a request to find a replacement for the outgoing health editor.