ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 16, 1997 TAG: 9704160031
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON THE ROANOKE TIMES
New players in the business of commercial electronic publishing give computer users a wider variety of local sites - and businesses a new audience.
The information superhighway increasingly leads to the Roanoke Valley - to its museums, its businesses, its people.
In recent months, the Blue Ridge Business Journal and an entrepreneur have built separate Roanoke waysides along the electronic highway. You can use the business journal's roanokebiz.com to look up local business news and information. Click on MetroWire to see Roanoke's online twin, called a virtual community.
Tonight, The Roanoke Times launches the latest contribution to the online world - roanoke.com - a gateway to 10 new sites about the community and links to an existing electronic version of the newspaper.
This proliferation of computer sites, or home pages, is happening across the country on the World Wide Web.
The new sites that tell about this area may look only like sources of entertainment or information, but they actually are commercial enterprises designed to make their creators money, primarily through advertising sales.
What would make a company promote itself in lights on a computer screen?
"There are more and more consumers whose habits are changing, where they are using the Internet to make shopping and buying decisions," said Debbie Burke, who sells advertising for roanoke.com.
Because the Web operates around the clock, businesses gain "a way to be open 24 hours a day," she said. Advertising rates start at $25 per month.
Also bullish on the Web is Patrick Maddox of Roanoke. In November he started MetroWire, which is loaded with community information and links to what he calls some of the best sites on the Web. He quit his job last year at his mother's Roanoke advertising agency, the Maddox Agency, to start his site. His rates begin at $75 monthly.
While Maddox said his sales are going well for a new venture, he also said the new medium is taking off slowly with advertisers.
"I don't think anybody's made any money at it yet, including anybody in Roanoke," Maddox said. "It's a brand-new vehicle, a new industry. In terms of throwing advertising dollars at it, companies are kind of skittish about that."
His pitch emphasizes numbers and buying power. Companies that buy on-line advertising reach people who often have college degrees and above-average income, he said.
Precise estimates are not available of the number of people in the Roanoke region with access to computers who are hooked to the Web. Maddox estimated it is at least 20,000 in the greater Roanoke area. The staff at roanoke.com estimates 14,000 households in Roanoke, Salem, Roanoke County and Botetourt County contain someone with access to the Web at home, work or school. The estimate for the New River Valley is 10,000.
In addition, Web sites have the potential to draw a look from former residents using their computers to keep tabs on the Roanoke area and from people planning a visit, said Bill Warren, the newspaper's electronic publishing consultant.
The on-line publishers have jazzed up their sites for maximum appeal, with moving pictures and huge databases, such as an electronic yellow pages called Blue Ridge BizLink at roanoke.com. The more consumers who look at a page, the greater the fee charged for advertising on that page.
The Blue Ridge Business Journal is marketing to companies the opportunity to be in its on-line business directory, which is open only to companies that pay advertising fees. People searching for a product or service are expected to use the directory for ideas, said Jim Lindsey, publisher of the 8-year-old Blue Ridge Business Journal and roanokebiz.com.
"We're focusing on our niche, which is basically business to business," Lindsey said. Launched Jan. 1, the site "provides an information service for business, which is along the lines of what the business journal does, and hopefully it will generate some additional revenues for us."
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON THE ROANOKE TIMES. Debbie Burke, directorby CNBof sales for roanoke.com, says the Internet is increasingly popular
with shoppers. color. Graphic: color.