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$100 million for the tabloid. Zero dollars to upgrade the domain name!

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The non-sale saga of a premium domain name.
BACKGROUND
American Media Inc., owner of numerous tabloids (National Enquirer, inTouch, Men’s Journal, etc.) purchased UsWeekly for a reported $100 million in 2017. Unfortunately, AMI does not own the UsWeekly.com domain name. Here is why that is important and what they can do about it…


The internet continues to dominate traditional print media as consumers increasingly go online for their media outlet of choice. They are no longer willing to wait monthly, or even a weekly, for a subscription to access their entertainment and news. As readers overwhelmingly turn to the Internet, so do advertisers, taking publishers’ revenue streams with them. Publishers that successfully adopt the internet and new technology fare far better than those that do not.


THEIR PROBLEM(S)

UsWeekly sales declined by double digits in both units sold on the newsstand and in revenue per the second half of 2016 and second half of 2017. Additionally, newsstand-dependent celebrity publications declined by nearly 25 percent in units sold on the newsstand.

Statista expects e-magazine readers in the US to increase from 18 million (2015) to 40 million by 2021. A Media Outlook report predicts digital magazine revenues to grow to 30% of total consumer magazine revenues by 2020 (from only 15% in 2015). Print magazine revenues are expected to decline 15% in the same time frame.

As previously mentioned, UsWeekly does not own the domain name usweekly.com nor is it for sale. Us.com is not a solution either unless AMI is willing to pony up to the 8-figure range. As things stand, UsWeekly’s current domain name, usmagazine.com, is a 13-letter nightmare to input. It invites typos and fatigue factor. Plus, usmagazine is not even the name of their publication.

BTW, which had you rather input:

eUs.com
or
usmagazine.com


THEIR SOLUTION

UsWeekly’s future is online, not print. And, UsWeekly’s ideal domain solution is to acquire a short, premium domain name e.g. eUs.com. As the owner of eUs.com these are the actions I took…

1. Calls targeted to key people within AMI.
2. Letters (with attachments) were mailed to key executives.
3. Even tee shirts were provided!


Price? Infinitesimally inexpensive relative to their initial print cost. And, the targeted ROI would pay for eUs.com within two years! The “e” advantages were elucidated ref: eBet.com; eTrade.com; eFlowers.com; eBags.com; eSurance.com; etc. Numerous advantages were listed in the accompanying attachment…

- eUs.com provides the shortest route to UsWeekly’s online presence. (The shorter the domain name the more likely people will go to your site.)
- eUs.com provides top-of-mind awareness (stickiness).
- eUs.com is easy to pronounce, spell, read and type.
- eUs.com has broad applicability with high brandability.
- eUs.com is highly cost effective.
- eUs.com is not only easy to input (no typos) and remember but is directly descriptive of UsWeekly’s online presence. (Memory and retention of a brand is critically important.)
- eUs.om is an appreciating investment that you own in perpetuity, not “dead” advertising costs.
- eUs.com increases support for advertiser’s goals and objectives. (Your advertisers will note your ease of online access.).
- eUs.com can strengthen online ad rates.
- An “e” prefixed Us.com will enhance UsWeekly’s ability for future financing/investments and possible IPO.
- eUs.com could not only enable UsWeekly to pull away from People.com, but also challenge TMZ.com in monthly traffic.
- Given the importance of mobiles, it’s imperative to have a short domain name such as eUs.com that is easy to type on a small screen

But, unfortunately for them, all these overwhelming advantages proved to no avail.


CONCLUSION

So, what did I learn from this? One can lead the proverbial corporate horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. The saying “penny wise, pound foolish” also comes to mind. If one has a short, premium, highly brandable domain name there are many companies and startups in need of such premium digital real estate. As domain name expert Josh Reason said, “e + keyword (domain names) continue to sell like hotcakes in 2019”.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
eUs.com is not a credible substitute for USWeekly.com. They are completely different domain names. That explains why it will be difficult to convince them to take eUs as an alternative.
 
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3. Even tee shirts were provided!

This is rather cleaver.

Can you post a screenshot of what the shirts looked like?
 
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Everytime someone creates a thread to hype their name, I find other "fellow" domainers trying their best to devaluate it. I would like to be the first one to actually support and wish you all the best in making that sale. eUS.com is a killer name that may be too big for even US Weekly.

eUS literally means "the US on the net". Banger of a name. Again, best of luck!
 
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Can you post a screenshot of what the shirts looked like?[/QUOTE]

Go to EUS.COM to see tee t shirt.
 
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Everytime someone creates a thread to hype their name, I find other "fellow" domainers trying their best to devaluate it. I would like to be the first one to actually support and wish you all the best in making that sale. eUS.com is a killer name that may be too big for even US Weekly.

eUS literally means "the US on the net". Banger of a name. Again, best of luck!

Thank you.
 
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If one has a short, premium, highly brandable domain name there are many companies and startups in need of such premium digital real estate.

Hi

i think your domain is very good.

but, If you believe that there are many other companies and startups who could potentially use the domain, then there will be other opportunities in the future.

though you can't make the horse drink when you lead them to water....
many times they will drink, when they get there on their own.

by that I mean,
if.... they had contacted you, instead of you contacting them and trying to persuade them to buy,
then maybe it would be different.
cuz, no matter how good the name, your leverage is weak when you solicit.

UsWeekly’s current domain name, usmagazine.com, is a 13-letter nightmare to input. It invites typos and fatigue factor. Plus, usmagazine is not even the name of their publication.

even if it isn't the name of their publication,
still, i can think of several domans that are as long or longer than usmagazine.com, within the domain community and apparently they aren't worried about those factors you mentioned.

ie: domainnamesales, domaininvesting, domainnamewire, etc

you've got a tier name, just maybe not right buyer.

Good Luck!

imo...
 
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eUS is a good 3-letter domain. However, I don't think it fits in this scenario. The tier one name here will be USweekly and not eUS
 
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EUs.com - another interpretation.
 
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Everytime someone creates a thread to hype their name, I find other "fellow" domainers trying their best to devaluate it. I would like to be the first one to actually support and wish you all the best in making that sale. eUS.com is a killer name that may be too big for even US Weekly.

eUS literally means "the US on the net". Banger of a name. Again, best of luck!
He did not create the thread to hype his name, he created the thread to share market experience, and we are giving him honest opinions. The opinions doesn't have to be all positive.

As good as eUS.com is (of which it's a great domain) it is certainly not a good replacement for USWEEKLY.COM. That's the truth. USWEEKLY is clearly the brand and there's no substitute for that. As far as news publishing is concerned, USMAGAZINE.COM is even preferable to eUS.COM, except the company decided to rebrand completely to eUS which will be a difficult decision considering it's an acquired business with licenses and it's own branding and assets.

What companies normally do in this kind of situation is to haggle the existing domain holder, tempting them with offers until they agree to give it up. And they must have seen the opportunity, considering that the currently usweekly.com holder seems to not doing pretty much with it.

No one is devaluing the name in anyway. In fact, the name can not be devalued even if someone try. All he needs to do is to wait for a perfect buyer.
 
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it actually cheapens eUS to go for this route.

And, interestingly, usmagazine.com is top 5K website in the world and even for that popular website, the loss of the traffic is incredibly small nowadays, as usweekly.com is only around 1.2MM Alexa, i.e. around 1000-2000 visitors a day, and that is with some news content on it. I am surprised, they haven't agreed on a deal, as it should be win-win for both. Monetizing 1000-2000 visitors is not much, and having low to mid 6 figures in a bank is better, and it should be no brainer for the magazine to pay that.

Probably, the owner of the domain has asked for much higher figure that the magazine has struggled to justify (don't confuse with afford)
 
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it actually cheapens eUS to go for this route.

And, interestingly, usmagazine.com is top 5K website in the world and even for that popular website, the loss of the traffic is incredibly small nowadays, as usweekly.com is only around 1.2MM Alexa, i.e. around 1000-2000 visitors a day, and that is with some news content on it. I am surprised, they haven't agreed on a deal, as it should be win-win for both. Monetizing 1000-2000 visitors is not much, and having low to mid 6 figures in a bank is better, and it should be no brainer for the magazine to pay that.

Probably, the owner of the domain has asked for much higher figure that the magazine has struggled to justify (don't confuse with afford)


It's hard to believe that they can't justify paying out at least 1-2MM to retain 730,000 annual visitors.

Even if 5% of these visitors become subscribers it results in a $1.8 MM profit.

That's just for a single year.

Not to mention it strengthens their brand and cleans up eMail issues.


It may be that the owner wants 5MM+, in that case the owner might just want to re-evaluate their own value.
 
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It's hard to believe that they can't justify paying out at least 1-2MM to retain 730,000 annual visitors.

Even if 5% of these visitors become subscribers it results in a $1.8 MM profit.

That's just for a single year.

Not to mention it strengthens their brand and cleans up eMail issues.


It may be that the owner wants 5MM+, in that case the owner might just want to re-evaluate their own value.

1. 1000-2000 is their visitors per day AFTER many years of typos and the content, so pure daily type-ins might be in hundreds, let's say 500 a day generously, although probably in 200-300 region.

2. That adds up to around 182500 unique visitors per year.

3. Conversion of 5% is a gross overestimate. You probably convert under 0.1%, that is less than 182 subscriptions. So the profit is probably in $xxxx, not in 7 figures, like your estimate.

And, yes, I won't be surprised if the owner has asked for 7 figures.
 
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eUS is a good 3-letter domain. However, I don't think it fits in this scenario. The tier one name here will be USweekly and not eUS

I agree. While it is obviously a good domain, I don't really see it as that relevant or useful to this end user.

Brad
 
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A thread made because a domain seller is mad that their sales pitch was denied?

you used the word online 6 times in your schpeel. UsWeekly.Online is $1.99 to register. There are always alternatives to paying a high amount for a domain.
 
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Hi

i think your domain is very good.

but, If you believe that there are many other companies and startups who could potentially use the domain, then there will be other opportunities in the future.

though you can't make the horse drink when you lead them to water....
many times they will drink, when they get there on their own.

by that I mean,
if.... they had contacted you, instead of you contacting them and trying to persuade them to buy,
then maybe it would be different.
cuz, no matter how good the name, your leverage is weak when you solicit.



even if it isn't the name of their publication,
still, i can think of several domans that are as long or longer than usmagazine.com, within the domain community and apparently they aren't worried about those factors you mentioned.

ie: domainnamesales, domaininvesting, domainnamewire, etc

you've got a tier name, just maybe not right buyer.

Good Luck!

imo...
EUs.com - another interpretation.
EUs.com - another interpretation.
A thread made because a domain seller is mad that their sales pitch was denied?

you used the word online 6 times in your schpeel. UsWeekly.Online is $1.99 to register. There are always alternatives to paying a high amount for a domain.

The word "mad" was not said nor intimated by me. That is a figment of your imagination.
 
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You need a comedy show, because that's funny.
USweekly.com is a well entrenched website. I would be surprised if the tabloid owners have not tried to purchase that domain name. Thanks for the laughs.
 
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I don't know. I own tabloid.US

Maybe I should have an article written complaining that they are not buying this premium name from me.
 
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Plenty of better fit 4 letters if they had some desire to shorten which they obviously don’t.

People don’t as a rule type us magazine, they open the app, make a bookmark so as to never type it again or click on a link when a new issue is available via social media (or they buy the damn thing at the store.)

How you make the jump from USWeekly to EUS is a little strange to say the least. It might be a more attractive alternative for other companies who actually use those letters in that sequence.

No one faults you for trying but your “online” justifications are a stretch. Did you really expect them to rebrand for you? Did you not know people don’t have to type a name in over and over?
 
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This is one case where I like the longer name USWeekly or USMagazine to the short proposed name eUS. I am sure good branding could get me used to eUS but somehow it just doesn't feel right, while the other tells me (more or less) what the product is. A Google search bar where I start typing it in takes me to their product well before completion, so if they have financial issues it is not due to the name, IMHO.
Bob
 
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are e domains even popular anymore? I have IMO a good e domain and cant even practically give it away in my portfolio sale.
 
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To those of us who value euphonic, sensical, and concise names....eUS simply draws absolutely no parallel to US Weekly. It's what we call a stretch.

Now, if the media company was named eUS Weekly....then you'd be onto something. The fact that you have to lay out a doctoral dissertation on the subject speaks otherwise.

Still a good name, though.
 
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To those of us who value euphonic, sensical, and concise names....eUS simply draws absolutely no parallel to US Weekly. It's what we call a stretch.

Now, if the media company was named eUS Weekly....then you'd be onto something. The fact that you have to lay out a doctoral dissertation on the subject speaks otherwise.

Still a good name, though.
Exactly
 
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If I were to narrow it down further to a 3L domain, USW will fit better than eUS.

But as a stand alone, EUS is looks better than USW
 
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