Soon after the iPhone was introduced in June, Pegasus News had workers down at Dallas-area Apple stores handing out promos for its tailored-to-mobile report. Two weeks later it had recorded 100,000 page views, according to publisher-founder Mike Orren.
Winged-horse symbolism aside, Pegasus has been a workman-like tortoise among splashier, high concept stand-alone sites, but it appears right now to be clicking on all cylinders. Orren reports the site recorded 392,000 unique visitors and about 1.5 million page views during the month of July.
Take a look (and thanks to fellow business blogger Ken Doctor for
a consciousness-raising mention of Pegasus in a post late last week).
When I reached Orren by phone, I asked first whether he was making any money. "We are not there yet," he said, "but we are getting closer every month." Break-even by the end of the year is possible, he added later.
The underpinnings of success are already there:
- A strong mix of where-to-go and what-to-do listings, sortable by 100 neighborhoods.
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"The "Daily You," an optional supplemental service that will deliver news and advertising to match both geography and interests (in the manner of Amazon's "you may also like" recommendations).
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Heavy use of searchable databases. One that lists contributors to local political candidates has proven particularly popular, Orren said.
Orren began work on the site in early 2005 and was purposely slow to launch, beginning with music-only at the end of the year and gradually adding more general content in mid-2006. Launching before you have a critical mass of content is a mistake, Orren argues, because you risk presenting visitors with "an empty room."
He and his collaborators learned early not to count on a heavy ration of citizen journalism. "We have had more success with a content-partner and have 50 or so sites that link to ours," Orren said. But citizen-developed content if not abundant is welcome, he added, citing a group of motivated parents in one under-covered school district, who "followed the bread crumbs" of Pegasus data postings and uncovered some tough questions about financial mismanagement.
The Pegasus model does not include seeking contributions or foundation grants. "We are not nearly as high-minded as Joel (Kramer) and
MinnPost," Orren said. The tone is light with bows to a "Daily Show" or
Onion sensibility. A lead story Monday on West Nile virus was illustrated by a photo of a guy in a mosquito costume. Staffers have funky titles like "film guy" or "research, garage sales and deals."
As a result, Orren said, Pegasus readers are turning out mostly to be 30-somethings who were not regular newspaper readers.
Once Pegasus is solidly profitable, expansion to other cities is planned. Orren at first thought that would be to another Texas city, but given the new ties to Fisher, Seattle or Portland is more likely. Never the over-promiser, he said a second launch might be as soon as next year or might be later.
And it almost certainly won't be named Pegasus. The site's title is only indirectly about mythological symbolism. It alludes to a neon sign (with Mobil Oil roots) that sits atop the Magnolia Hotel and has become a Dallas icon.
