Monster Eats Employment Ads - Now Hungry for Obits
The founder of Monster.com tinkered around and blew a bunch of VC money ($40 million?) on a website for the boomer crowd called Eons.com.
Eons.com is drawing it’s last breath, so now Jeff Taylor is after another bastion of newspapers - obituaries.
He’s entering a crowded field with a rather limited market. Legacy.com has been around a few years and has a very complete online obit package. There are other smaller players but Legacy.com is the market leader by a long shot.
Many funeral homes offer a “memorial website” as an upsell for their services. If Taylor’s obit site wants the information and thinks it will be free, he might have a rude awakening.
- Many newspapers charge for obituaries. The Daily News doesn’t.
- Many newspapers are cutting down on the space for obits by eliminating facts the families would like to have included. The Daily News is more liberal in including these facts than a few years back.
- Many newspapers won’t put in photographs of the deceased. The Daily News will upon request.
If a newspaper is publishing basic “death notices” ie: absolute minimum, and is charging for anything more, an alternative might be attractive to the families/funeral homes.
Once again, an entrepreneur has set his sights on taking away a probable revenue source and for sure readership generator.
Here we go again.