Drillbit's Relationship Publishing triangle.

Detroit Metro Times' award winning web development team forms new company to serve alternative publishers
by the Drillbit Staff  1/10/01

DETROIT, MI - The Metro Times, Detroit's leading alternative newspaper, has spun-off its award-winning Web effort to form Drillbit(TM).

Lead by Detroit native and MIT graduate Tom Woodman, the new company will help newspaper publishers create successful business models online. "It no longer makes good business sense to just post a newspaper online and sell banner ads," says Woodman. Instead, the organization is built on the premise of Relationship Publishing(TM) — a strategy that improves their ability to communicate with both readers and advertisers.

"Relationship Publishing holds readers attention by truly leveraging the two-way nature of the Web," says Woodman, who previously managed Web development for The Metro Times. Such a strategy enabled metrotimes.com — which now boasts a family of community-built arts and entertainment guides — to increase Web traffic by over 300%. Notes Woodman, "Our metrotimes.com experience proved that community-driven content maximizes publishers' greatest asset: their readers."

According to Woodman, Relationship Publishing will also enable publishers to meet the evolving needs of advertisers. "Distinct, lifestyle communities offer overwhelming benefits to advertisers too," says Woodman. "Advertisers will finally be able to reach the right readers... the ones who actually care about their products." In the future, the company plans to offer unique targeted advertising tools.

Drillbit's current client base includes The Metro Times, Chicago-based New City Communications, Baltimore's City Paper, The San Antonio Current and San Jose-based Metro Newspapers.