It looks like Chicago.com may have be bought by the Chicago Sun-Times.
The site was updated recently and now the Chicago Sun-Times is all over it, including on the front page where it says “brought to you by the Chicago Sun- Times.com”
Chicago.com which has been an operating site for many years is now showing being in Beta as a newly re-launched site would be.
The servers on the domain name were also recently updated to STABLETRANSIT.COM according to the whois records on DomainTools.com.
The owner of the domain name for many years was listed as Chicago.com,Inc. but changed late last year to Things to Do Chicago, Inc.
Chicago.com has been selling email addresses and subdomains for a while, but as of August 1, you need to be a “Chicago Sun-Times Premium Member” to get a Chicago.com email address
Paragraph 13 of the TOS of the Premium Membership for the Chicago Sun-Times says:
Premium Members are eligible to claim one free @Chicago.com email address. A @Chicago.com free email address requires active Premium Membership to activate and at all times to use. … Redemption requires an existing email account to forward to. Chicago.com and Company reserve the right to change or cancel this offer at any time. For complete offer details, please visit: suntimes.chicago.com .”
I reached out to a representative from Chicago.com and got a “no comment”
If the Sun-Times in fact bought Chicago.com that will be the second time in just a few weeks that a new owner took over city.com domain name.
Last week the Boston Globe sold along with Boston.com for $70 million dollars.
This certainly will not please the owners of the Chicago Tribune, which back in an April Story seemed to have reached an agreement with Chicago.com on some sort of partnership on the sale of .Chicago Subdomains.
Speaking of The Chicago Tribune, they even blew there chance to get the domain name TheChicagoTribune.com which dropped just days ago and now instead goes to a Godaddy Placeholder.
Michael Cyger says
Hi Mike,
I think this is what Josh was referring to in his interview in May of this year:
Michael: What do you think has been your biggest hindrance to-date in selling more of these email address-domain name pairs?
Josh: Marketing. Yeah, lack of marketing power. So, the Chicago Tribune deal was signed on February 26th, which was a critical deal. It was – I don’t know – nine or ten months of negotiations with them, and that is a multimillion-dollar marketing deal over three years. So, without something like that, it was mostly word of mouth. We would send these blasts out to a thousand people and people would refer friends. We are a small company, so up until the Tribune deal we really did not have much of a marketing budget. Now we have got a multimillion-dollar marketing budget just focused on Chicago and we are starting to iterate the message and see what types of words work and what does not.
Michael: Yeah. Okay, so you have just put in place a marketing partnership agreement with the Chicago Tribune Media Group. It is a multi-year deal that will reach hundreds of thousands of people around the Chicago area.
For reference: http://www.domainsherpa.com/josh-metnick-chicago-interview/
Best,
Michael
shahram says
I have a friend that was one of the bids and they sold it for 30m less than what they sold it for.
Michael Berkens says
What sold for $30M less?
shahram says
sorry, i have a head cold lol was referring to the boston globe.
Owen Frager says
This is the way to do geos and build value for the subscription content. Too bad folks had to wait until .whatevers are breathing down their necks with the city mayors doe]ing the selling. Michael Cyger is right- you need the partner who has the reach and the reason and urgency to buy. You have to show a business plan with a positive revenue flow. This is brilliant dividends of all participants. Everyone wins on this one.
Owen Frager says
doing the selling. Adam how about two minute “do-over” edit ability likeLinkedIn has, in case you go back and see you made an error in your post? A reminder that you can’t see disability behind the screen.
Michael Berkens says
Well the Boston Globe was purchased by The Times Company for $1.1 Billion so they took a slightly higher loss than $30M on the sale
Louise says
Cleveland.com is owned by Advance Digital, Inc, yet, the content appears supplied by Sun News, a Canadian company. Sun News also supplies content to CNN, which is owned by CBS News . . . Sun News of Canada also supplies news for MyrtleBeachOnline. Funny, Canadians supplying US news! So, the owner of Cleveland.com has an agreement with Sun News of Canada, much as the owner of Chicago.com entered into an agreement with US-based Sun Times Media Group.
Is there a lesson in this? Looks like news company with exact match city dot com is a winning combination.
Owen Frager says
Not just news but c&v (convention and visitors bureaus) as Visit Las Vegas discovered finally acquiring LasVegas.com
unknowndomainer says
I know who won’t be supplying any photos for the site if they go in that direction.
Joseph Slabaugh says
“© 2013 LAS VEGAS CONVENTION AND VISITORS AUTHORITY AND/OR LV.COM, LLC.”
I hate when companies do this, promote them self as “LV.COM LLC” when they do NOT own that domain.
Ohio.com is owned by Akron Beacon Journal, and “Local Guides” owns Tennessee.com, the state I recently moved to. They also apparently own “houstons.net”, which is a resturant in Utah. Must be a family business.