Impact of a Federal Newspaper Bailout

Conor Neu brought up an interesting discussion about what could possibly happen to the geodomain industry should the federal government offer a bailout. I do my best not to follow political news these days because it’s distracting, but I do know that newspapers are very important to politicians. It’s the local newspapers who provide the most in depth local coverage, allowing an unknown politician to become known and relevant in his district. Newspaper journalists – especially local papers – are politically important, and I don’t think it would be a far stretch to see the government send some financial aid their way.

That said, I can’t ever imagine the US government taking geodomain businesses away from hard working entrepreneurs and giving them to the failing newspapers whose lack of foresight led them to where they are today. Nearly every major .com geodomain name is developed or under development, and almost all of those are either owned by private entrepreneurial companies (or newspapers), and I can’t fathom that the government would step in and take possession of one company’s assets and give them to another company – especially in a failing industry.

That said, I do think it’s possible that we will see newspaper companies receiving federal financial assistance, which could be used to buy geodomain names. One thing which newspapers should note is that geodomains generally have much, much less overhead than the newspaper, yet they receive just about the same (or more traffic) than the competing paper. I am a one man show, and in my local markets, I am most certainly competing online with the local papers’ websites.

I am very happy with my geodomain growth, and I think Conor’s article offers some good insight into the state of the industry and where it’s headed.