In some cases, it is anticipated that members will be news companies that have abandoned their printed daily newspaper for economic or strategic reasons in favor of an online newssite only.

ONA will offer members a monthly closed-access conference call for sharing ideas, advanced technological improvements and opportunities, as well as new revenue models that are proving to be successful.

The co-presidents of ONA are Walter Brooks, president and founder of Cape Cod Today, So. Dennis, MA. at www.capecodtoday.com; and Louise Phelps, president and founder of Savannah Daily News, Savannah, GA. at www.savdailynews.com.

Together, Brooks and Phelps have also launched a franchise company to assist owners with the launch, expansion or re-branding of daily newssites under the uniting brand and website USNewsTODAY at www.usnewstoday.net, set to be launched in late March 2009.

This network of locally-owned and community-based online news will collectively offer readers and advertisers a one-stop method of reaching the world's online readers in a network of locally written, edited and produced news sites. The goal is to assist franchisees with proven business models with low overhead and high profitability, as well as news domination of their markets,

HOW IT WORKS for READERS:

The masthead of each local edition will reflect the style, colors, art and persona of each News Site's own locale. It will feel "local." But, as the reader moves from City to City, similar formatting on features and ads makes it easy and comfortable to read multiple editions. Yet, Savannah will still look like Savannah, and Cape Cod like Cape Cod. And each site can be customized for advertising opportunities for a specific market.

HOW IT WORKS for ADVERTISERS:

Advertisers will see a consistent format, level of news content and ad size and methodology as they move from market to market. Because all the editions will be created by the franchise company, as part of the benefit of the franchise relationship, advertisers can run the same size promotion in one market or across the entire network.

HOW IT WORKS for NEWS EDITORS:

The same consistency in design and format allows editors to pick up features, art, cartoons and other editorial elements from other editions which may appeal to them for their readers. And they benefit by a constant source of training for reporters and editors posting their own news, as they go through staff turnover. There is no need for an in-house trainer or Webmaster.

HOW IT WORKS for ADVERTISING DEPARTMENTS:

Advertising Directors will have access to a monthly conference call of revenue generators in the franchise network, led by a franchise company team leader. The same consistency in design and ad formats allows Advertising Directors to learn from their peer franchisees, tap into constantly available training for new sales reps, and discuss new revenue ideas. As the web changes and new revenue opportunities emerge, websites will be updated as part of the franchise contract, based on consensus of the member newssites.

HOW IT WORKS for PUBLISHERS and OWNERS:

Exclusive franchises are available for specific locations, usually a city or in some cases, a county. The one-time fee is required, based on market size, plus 5% of future online advertising gross sales. This includes:

IS A FRANCHISE RIGHT FOR YOU?

There are two kinds of publishers who should own a USNewsTODAY franchise;

  1. Ones who want to be the dominant source of news for their community.

  2. Ones who want to inherit the advertising dollars which the print media is losing to the Internet

It's even wiser to have both desires.

As regional daily newspapers shrink both in local news coverage and local advertising, and as print revenues decline for niche publishers, local entrepreneurs in cities and towns all across America are picking up the gauntlet to dominate news coverage for their communities.

These men and women are the Greeleys, Hearsts, Pulitzers. Ochs and Sultzbergers of the 21st Century.

With less than 18% of Americans under the age of forty reading a daily newspaper, journalists and local publishers of non-newspaper publications are the logical replacement of each community's daily newspaper.

It is no longer a question of whether you "like" newspapers or not - your fellow citizens have turned their backs on the "old media" in favor of electronic alternatives.

Why the newspaper industry is on "the slippery slope"

Nobody noticed it when the good times were rolling, but the business model upon which the daily newspaper business is based simply does not work any longer, and it hasn't worked for a couple of decades. If you want to read the specific reason why, here's a recent play-by-play by USNewsTODAY co-founder Walter Brooks.

Here's why a network of compatible news sites will dominate community news:.

USNewsTODAY is a "TURNKEY" OPERATION

Because of USNewsTODAY's unique design and formats, any person who can write an email can create a story on our format and post to your website in a matter of minutes.

It is literally that simple.

The customized, exclusive "content management" newssites publishers will receive will make it surprisingly easy for anyone whom owners designate to login and:

And writers can do this from a Laptop with Wifi at the scene, or from their home of office -- no copy editors (unless you choose to) production staff or printing presses.

Our staff of in-house experienced journalists and webmasters are always as near as your email or telephone to lead you out of any problems and answer your questions. That's "turnkey" and web-fast.

Our USNewsTODAY newssites do something else which has not yet occurred to the "old media." We will teach them how to aggregate news about their local market area from any online site worldwide which writes stories about their community.

Few if any of these stories ever appear in the local print media which increasingly fill their pages with wire stories due to budget cuts.

Take a few minutes to look at Cape Cod TODAY for an example of this original technique which you and your staff will be trained to use. There are six to eight stories in each daily edition of this one element of www.capecodtoday.com.

BUILD YOUR OWN LOCAL BLOG PILE

Don't confuse the USNewsTODAY BLOGS with the over 200,000,000 (yes, that's 200 million) out there in cyberspace. No one will ever see most of them except the blogger's mom and dad and close friends.

The USNewsTODAY BLOGS are really like newspaper columns because our newssites are recognized as accredited, local media by Google News and the other search engines, and because the search engines focus on sites with the most new content, a local one like Cape Cod TODAY gets over a half million unique visitors monthly and have 20,000 indexed pages on News.Google.com.

After your week of training, you will be able to create individual BLOGS for anyone in your community -- whom you allow -- and who wants to offer you this free content.

On Cape Cod there are over 200 local writers contributing free content daily with the area named Cape Blogs at the Cape Cod Today local edition of USNewsTODAY.

WE'LL TEACH YOU ABOUT SELLING LOCAL WEB ADVERTISING

Selling web advertising is different than selling print, and requires a special skill.

The most appropriate clients tend to be younger than print clients, and people who are themselves web savvy. Many of your best target accounts will know more about promoting businesses online than even the most experienced print ad sales person.

For over ten years, Cape Cod Today's sales people have been bringing in double-digit revenue increases, and in 2008 that newssite had an 18% revenue increase after a decade of similar annual growth.

Even though our founder's also publish print publications, they found out early on that no one can serve two masters, and they employ sales people who sell the web exclusively.

THE PRINCIPALS

USDailyNEWS is the brainchild of two well-know, lifelong newspaper and Internet savvy people, Lou Phelps and Walter Brooks.

Walter Brooks founded Best Read Guides as an out-of-paper, local vacation magazine network which soon was franchised successfully to dozens of newspapers in family vacation areas like Orlando, Las Vegas, Martha's Vineyard, Savannah and Cape Cod. He went on to found eCape.com, an IT company in 1997 which creates content management sites plus over 400 other websites.

A lifelong newspaperman, Walter's career stops included The Greenwich CT Times, Editor & Publisher, New York Post and MPG Communications. He is Editor & Publisher of Cape Cod TODAY which has been an online Newssite for over a decade, perhaps the first one in existence.

An indefatigable traveler who has visited 180 countries and stopped counting, over of his 100 Travel Tales are available to members to publish on their newssites, see here and here.

Lou Phelps is the president of Coastal Empire News, founded in Savannah in 1998, and president of Phelps, Cutler & Associates, the national media consulting firm, founded in 1991. Coastal Empire News is the publisher of Savannah's daily news site, Savannah Daily News, launched in 2007. Phelps, Cutler & Associates website is www.newspaperexperts.com.

Lou also publishes the region's business newspaper, The Business Report & Journal, launched May 1998, and Coastal Family Magazine, the region's only complete parenting magazine, in publication since 1995.

She began in the newspaper business in 1981, rising to co-owner/ co-publisher of the community newspaper company The Mariner Newspapers, Marshfield, MA. Before moving to Savannah in 1995, she served as Vice President/Sales of Lawyers Weekly Publications, Inc., Boston, MA; and Director of Sales for The San Francisco Chronicle's community newspaper division in New England, Beacon Communications of Acton, MA.

Phelps also sits on the Board of Directors of KPC Media Group, Inc, Kendallville, IN, a daily newspaper and niche publishing company in the Fort Wayne, IN. market, where she serves as chair of the Finance Committee.

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