How can quality survive?
Satellite radio provides an insight into how the advent of a technology can serve to nurture diversity in an economically viable way. Satelllite radio has broadened the reach of individual stations to a market base large enough to support formats that are not viable in the typical metropolitan area station distribution format. Satellite radio providers have Big Band, Swing, Showtunes, Reggae, Comedy, and others that can not garner the support to have stations of their own in most, if not all districts. The World Wide Web provides a perfect distribution platform for diversity, just like the satellite for radio - but the dial is too big, finding web site is far more challenging than finding a radio station.
The Gatekeepers
The solution to finding what you need on the world wide web has become the modern search engine, a field dominated by jusr a few players that, to large extent, dictate who sees what. This concentration of power has meant that the operation of a sustainable web site that can attract an audience must include an element of understanding about how these gatekeepers work. This is the field of search engine optimization (SEO). Unfortunately, the future appears to lie in the direction of traffic going to those who can best manipulate the gatekeepers. In an ideal world quality, relevant content alone would be enough to claim a prominent place in a search engine. Search engine algorthims that use the popularity of websites (generally assessed through linking) can further accentuate the problem, ensuring that those on top stay on top. "Index-spamming" or "gaming" search engines has created an arms-race of sorts between that fraudulent operators and search companies and as the technology gets more sophisticated on both sides the small-time website operator is forced to get savvy or risk disappearing from the landscape.
The Montrose Group Approach
The Montrose Group is a for-profit enterprise and as such is committed to ensuring the economic viability of all its pursuits. But this is not incompatible with the goal of a rich and diverse internet. Our goal is to acquire Internet properties that represent the best of what the internet has to offer and ensure that they provide stable income and remain of high quality.
Where possible we retain the original content providers for our web sites to do what they do best, generate content. We have no political or social agenda and are not interested in censoring or exercising editorial control over any of our properties. Where we provide an important resource is in the technical aspects of the business. Optimizing searches, marketing, content management, hosting, and troubleshooting. We take care of driving traffic to the sites and making sure that they are enjoyed to the fullest.