U.S. Digital Media to provide “good news” web-based local content
The stubborn recession isn’t all around bad news for Clark County businesses. For U.S. Digital, it’s a time of opportunity and expansion. The Vancouver-based manufacturing business, which employs 118 people, is expanding into the media world with the launch of U.S. Digital Media.
As David Madore, U.S. Digital’s CEO, sees it, the business will provide web-based local content for Southwest Washington. While the exact models are still in the works (with full launch expected in some six to eight months), a few things are certain: Madore wants local people to explore the area’s “good news” stories and to feature stories about local businesses in a “buy local” push.
“We haven’t seen anybody provide a locally-focused media resource that is meant to generate the kind of content that is of high value to the local community,” Madore said. “This is not a bad news-based media, like a newspaper.”
With deeply Christian roots and biblical scriptures posted on the company’s website, it seems natural to assume that the media will be Christian-based as well. Madore says content is open to “worthy” causes, people or organizations that he calls “wholesome, healthy and interesting.”
“It’s a resource to bless wholesomeness,” Madore said. “It’s not a Christian website. Certainly there are Christians involved, but we want to include our broader communities who have good values.”
Madore’s company is building a double-decker media facility within U.S. Digital, which will be available to the community for sound and video recordings. The company has also been on a hiring spree, with eight U.S. Digital Media staffers already in place and three more scheduled to start within the next two weeks. Staff members include two videographers, a voice actor, an audiographer, an illustrator, a digital content manager and a sales representative, which the company dubs sponsoring, rather than advertising.
With hundreds of domain names in the hopper, the organization is working to fine-tune its focus, talking with people in the community about wants and needs, before its final launch. Couv.com and wiredclark.com are some of the site names already snagged by U.S. Digital Media. One that will definitely launch is clarkblogs.com, a site that will host local bloggers, Madore said.
Separate from the U.S. Digital Media launch, the company is hosting WAY-FM, a Christian radio station that recently left the Kelso area. The Brew will broadcast starting April 1st on 105.9, KFBW on analog and 105.9-2 WAY-FM for HD radio users.
Madore says recessionary times are typically good for his business. He said good people find themselves looking for work, and with financial reserves and no debt, he’s able to expand.
This time, it’s into the media realm.
