New Century Network, an online
venture of major newspapers, announced today it is closing its operations
by the end of March.
Sources report that the board members decided to shut down NCN due to the
fact that the board was not seeing a significant return on its investments,
and could not agree on a common business plan.
Last month the company announced a business strategy that would focus the
company’s efforts on establishing an advertising network across its more
than 140 newspaper affiliate Web sites. Although NCN was signing on
advertisiers, the board still decided to close down the company.
Owners of the online newspaper consortium include Advance Publications, the
New York Times Inc., the Tribune Co., Washington Post Co., Times-Mirror
Co., Cox Newspapers Inc., Knight Ridder Inc., Hearst Corp. and Gannett Co.