KIRKLAND, Wash., Sept. 01, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the . NEWS TLD grows in popularity as the domain of choice for breaking news, Rightside Group, LTD (NASDAQ: NAME ) today announced The Seattle Times has embraced www.seattletimes.news and www.ST.news . The Seattle Times , the state of Washington’s largest daily newspaper, began utilizing www.seattletimes.news as an active redirect from the paper’s Twitter profile to help track Twitter referrals to their website. Additionally, The Seattle Times has leveraged www.ST.news to create branded short links using the Bitly service.
“For 120 years, we’ve been committed to serving our community with thoughtful, independent news and information,” said Kati Erwert, director of marketing at The Seattle Times . “Employing the . NEWS domain succinctly communicates our proud tradition of journalistic authority while continuing to invest in our technology-rich present. Shortened links not only allow us to provide more news in limited social spaces, but also strengthen consistent brand presence in the marketplace in ways that users can best connect with us.”
With more than 1,000 TLDs available worldwide, . NEWS is now in the top 30 for new gTLD registrations and has seen wide adoption by leading news organizations, as well as major brands. The company has seen its biggest adoption of . NEWS in the United States, but also in Canada, China, Germany, the United Kingdom, and beyond. Organizations such as BBC , BuzzFeed , Engadget , The Huffington Post and more are using a . NEWS domain as a redirect to their home pages. Others like Amazon, Apple, Hyundai, Microsoft, and T-Mobile are using . NEWS domains as an authoritative place to deliver up-to-date information and to benefit from an easy-to-remember, branded domain. By combining the power of short and memorable domains (like ST.News) with Bitly’s ability to measure and optimize marketing efforts, brands can fully harness the power of branded short links across all marketing channels.
“Over the past few years, Bitly has built tools for enterprise marketers to help them track the customer journey across multiple channels and deliver a great customer experience across the web and mobile. We're excited to see an institution like The Seattle Times ahead of the curve in utilizing their . NEWS domain and Bitly-hosted ST.News domain to communicate with their readers,” said Bitly CEO, Mark Josephson.
In a case study, “ Increasing Engagement: The Power of a Branded Short Domain ,” Bitly drills down into the value of branded short domains like the one used by The Seattle Times . By analyzing a user base of more than 750 brands, publishers, and nonprofits with high audience engagement rates, the case study concluded that “branded short domains drive up to 34 percent increase in click-through rates when compared with unbranded links.”
To help brands further utilize the benefits of owning branded short domains, on September 14 Rightside will release new domain inventory where two-character domains for popular TLDs like (. GAMES , . LIVE , . NEWS , . NINJA , . SOCIAL , . ROCKS , . VIDEO and many more) can be purchased. You can download the list of inventory here. Registrar partners participating include: Enom, Hexonet, Name.com, and United Domains.
“The days of being limited to .COM domains are gone. Brands are using complementary domains to direct audiences to specific branded website locations in interesting, easy, and memorable ways,” said Rightside CEO, Taryn Naidu. “In an age where brands now have social, video, and numerous other online and offline marketing investments, the growing popularity of branded short domains offers a novel way to strengthen brand awareness across these channels while streamlining the audience’s path to reach them at the same time.”
About Rightside Rightside® inspires and delivers new possibilities for consumers and businesses to define and present themselves online. The company, with its affiliates, is a leading provider of domain name services, offering one of the industry's most comprehensive platforms for the discovery, registration, usage, and monetization of domain names. In addition to being a new gTLD registry operator, Rightside is home to some of the most admired brands in the industry, including Enom and Name.com . Headquartered in Kirkland, WA, Rightside has offices in North America and Europe. For more information please visit www.rightside.co .
About The Seattle Times The Seattle Times serves the Northwest with thoughtful, independent journalism that makes a difference. We’re a news media company dedicated to the highest standards of journalism. We cut through the clutter and provide readers with news and information that is timely, relevant and easy to access in every way they consume us. Founded in 1896, The Seattle Times remains a family-owned business deeply rooted in the community and committed to principled, investigative news coverage.
About Bitly Bitly’s software platform helps the world’s leading brands deliver and measure their efforts across all marketing channels. Through the power of the link, Bitly connects customers to the best digital experience possible, harnessing functionality like branded short links, mobile deep linking and omnichannel analytics to provide a complete marketing solution that drives customer experience. Bitly processes more than 10B clicks each month across the world. The company is headquartered in New York City, with additional offices in San Francisco and Denver. Brands like IBM, eBay, GE, BuzzFeed and more rely on Bitly as their universal link management platform. To learn more about how Bitly helps companies measure and optimize their marketing efforts, please visit www.bitly.com .
Contact Acacia Krebs Director, Corporate Communications Rightside press@rightside.co
