BY DAN
KENNEDY
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Friday, August 29, 2003
Competition for USA
Today? Reader JM today sends along an e-mail that clearly
looks like spam. But is it? Here is a press
release I found for the
USA Times that is similar to the e-mail, and it obviously
doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. Apparently it's going to be sold
through some multiple-level-marketing system, sort of like
NuSkin.
Says the press release:
This will be the first
nationwide newspaper in 21 years! You Know How Huge USA TODAY is,
so you can imagine the potential! The newspaper will be promoted
by MLM. This is going to be a very big deal and their 5 level
commission plan is awesome!
Hmmm.
The press release directs you to
this
page at a site called
newsbucks.com, which describes the USA Times as "THE LARGEST
VENTURE IN THE HISTORY OF NETWORK MARKETING!" It continues: "The USA
TIMES is poised to take the nation by storm with a new kind of hard
hitting journalism that people will want to see on their doorstep
every day of the week!"
So is it real? I did a "whois"
search, and it turns out that the domain name newsbucks.com and
theusatimes.com are registered with the same owner, which is a good
sign, I suppose. It appears to be based in Miami.
And there is a classy-looking
website
for the USA Times that claims the paper will launch on January
1.
I wouldn't want to bet that the
USA Times will ever come into being, but it's worth keeping an
eye on.
posted at 11:14 AM |
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MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
