A news report caught my attention this afternoon. Rupert Murdoch launched a US version of his UK news publication, The Sun. Unfortunately for Mr. Murdoch, the publication was forced to use a hyphen in the domain name, The-Sun.com. The reason? TheSun.com has long been owned by another entity.
Rupert Murdoch launches US version of the tabloid The Sun https://t.co/uVpBcztZ4M pic.twitter.com/MTsZAEf2jd
— The Hill (@thehill) January 13, 2020
In 2019, a UDRP was filed against TheSun.com by News Group Newspapers Limited, the parent company of The Sun publication. As one might expect with a generic domain name like this, the panel found it was a case of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking. The registrant kept the domain name, and Murdoch’s company is now using a hyphenated domain name. Not the best idea in the US market where hyphenated domain names are pretty uncommon. Case in point, I can not think of one major website in the US that has a hyphen.
Apparently, the minimum offer to buy TheSun.com in 2018 was $2.5 million. I presume the price to buy this domain name is much higher now. It looks like the domain name can be leased via Venture.com for $10,000/month with a 4.8% annual increase. I am a bit surprised they did not lock in that rate. It will be interesting to revisit the domain name in a year to see if they reach a deal, and if not, to see how much the monthly cost has gone up.
Isn’t this one owned by Kevin Hamm
Not able to afford 10k per month, not exactly a sign of faith in his venture. These types of business are mostly in decline even with online revenue and this venture has a very significant chance of being a flop.
I can’t blame them for not wanting to invest much, though the hyphen name signals a lack of resources to readers.
The Sun has always had this problem. Twenty years ago it tried to brand itself as bun.com, based on the alleged Cockney rhyming slang for the paper — “currant bun”. Talk about convoluted.