With those two sites, the venerable Mercury brand name is still visible, but secondary to the new brand name. He sees a critical difference between newspapers that seek to expand their local audience vs. those that want to reach out to wider audiences. A newspaper that puts pretty much the same content on its Web site as in print is seeking to attract online users who want to read the news online. Since locals already get the print edition, this is primarily a strategy to reach beyond the boundaries of print distribution. The use of legacy brand names online makes sense in attracting far-flung news consumers.
Web sites exist primarily to attract a local audience.
They may offer headlines from the newspaper, but the way that they attract local users is to offer up content and services that the printed newspaper does not offer. It's those sites that should have a brand name divorced from the legacy brand. Visit the site and you'll notice barely a mention of the Las Vegas Review-Journal , the newspaper that operates the successful site. The Review-Journal brand name is not necessary, nor even desirable. It can be placed in a secondary branding position, which helps add credibility to the site, but it should not be primary.