Big Green Book Bites the Dust - ThomasNet Goes Digital
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Written By Reprise Media | June 1, 2005 | Share This
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Earlier this year we told you about the launch of ThomasNet.com, an industrial search engine that brings together ThomasRegister.com and ThomasRegional.com in one online destination. The site was heralded by Charlene Li and others in the search industry as one of the top sites for industrial search.
A press release yesterday announced the end of the company’s print publications. The print directory, known to many in the biz as the “Big Green Book”, will no longer be available starting 2006. The Regional Buying Guides will face the same fate.
It’s all part of a decade-long transition to the Internet as the primary source of information for the industrial market, says Linda Rigano, director of strategic alliances and new business development at ThomasNet in this article on ClickZ:
“It has been our strategy for the last 10 years to eventually eliminate the print properties. It was just a matter of how long it would take.”
The company has kept other aspects of its business model up-to-date as well, slowly shifting from traffic sales to offering content services such as a library of CAD drawings and marketing seminar series.
Yet another smart move in a series of well-planned transitions. Let’s just hope someone’s not online looking for generator parts when the plant’s power goes out.
Topics: Search: Vertical |