• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, September 21, 2009

Martin Nisenholtz, SVP, Digital Operations, The New York Times Company, says one of the biggest mistakes the newspaper made around its online strategy occurred during the dot-com bust when it shutdown Abuzz, which it bought for $30 million in 1999. He says it was before the era of Google AdSense, so when you took the inventory to the advertising community they didn't want to be in front of inventory they couldn't predict how it would do.

It's been a rocky start for newspapers that want to jump online. Some have missed the boat completely. For example, The parent company of the Orange County Register filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection recently. It's practically the only competitor to The Los Angeles Times in the Orange County area, the home to Laguna Beach and Newport Beach.