Radio One Selects Tributes.com Online Obituary Platform
BOSTON, MA – April 23, 2012 – Tributes.com, the online resource for local and national obituary news, has launched a new partnership with Radio One, Inc. (Nasdaq: ROIAK; ROIA) the urban-oriented, multi-media company with the largest radio broadcasting operation that primarily targets African-American and urban listeners. Radio One websites catering to Inspirational, Gospel and Talk radio audiences across 12 U.S. urban markets now feature obituary news powered by Tributes.com.
Tribute.com has been instrumental in helping broadcast stations enter the obituary classified vertical historically dominated by print media. With over 100 stations in the Tributes Network featuring Tributes-powered obituary sections on their websites, Tributes has successfully leveraged its strong funeral home channel relationships to bring high quality hyper-local news content to media partners. The Internet brand, now 2.5M monthly unique consumers strong, has historically focused on television station partnerships to build its Obituary Distribution Network. 2012 however will mark aggressive business development efforts to expand its reach into radio, print and cable.
“Tributes.com provides a quality content product with no upfront costs or operational overhead allowing our stations to deliver localized obituary news in a fully integrated and customized format to their individual audiences along with a host of other features and content which enable them to remember and pay tribute to loved ones and to gain access to information about grief recovery,” said Dan Shelley, General Manager of Digital at Radio One.
“Ongoing development of the Tributes Obituary Distribution Network both geographically and into new media segments is critically important as we work to continue to expand our reach and our brand awareness and ensure that U.S. obituary information is more accessible to consumers across the country,” said Elaine Haney, CEO and President, Tributes.com. “The regional distribution that our media partners add to the Tributes.com national footprint is very valuable to our growing channel of funeral home partners who look to Tributes to help them more efficiently and effectively communicate obituary and service information for the families they serve and to also help drive traffic and new customer acquisition for their businesses. The Radio One partnership will now add a new dimension of distribution to our Network that we expect will be very appealing to the African-American funeral home segment.”
About Tributes.com
Tributes.com is the online resource for current local and national obituary news, lasting personal tributes and online community providing support during times of loss and grieving. Through one centralized national web destination, with over 90 million current and historical death records dating back to the 1930s, Tributes has made obituary and online memorial service information easily accessible so people can come together online and offline to remember and share the treasured stories of the important people in their lives who have passed away. Monster.com founder Jeff Taylor officially launched Tributes.com in the fall of 2008 and in 3 short years the site has experienced rapid growth, and is now relied on by thousands of funeral homes and more than 2.5M unique consumers each month to publish and locate obituary news. For more information about Tributes.com, please visit our website at www.tributes.com or contact us at media@tributes.com.
About Radio One
Radio One, Inc. (http://www.radio-one.com/) is a diversified media company that primarily targets African-American and urban consumers. The Company is one of the nation’s largest radio broadcasting companies, currently owning 54 broadcast stations located in 16 urban markets in the United States. As a part of its core broadcasting business, Radio One operates syndicated programming including the Russ Parr Morning Show(http://www.therussparrmorningshow.com/) the Yolanda Adams Morning Show (www.syndication1.com/yolanda.htm), the Rickey Smiley Morning Show (www.syndication1.com/rickey.htm), CoCo Brother Live (www.syndication1.com/coco.htm), CoCo Brother’s “Spirit” (www.syndication1.com/coco.htm) program, Bishop T.D. Jakes’ “Empowering Moments” (www.syndication1.com/td.htm), the Reverend Al Sharpton Show (www.syndication1.com/al.htm), and the Warren Ballentine Show (www.syndication1.com/warren.htm). The Company also owns a controlling interest in Reach Media, Inc. (http://www.blackamericaweb.com/), owner of the Tom Joyner Morning Show and other businesses associated with Tom Joyner. Beyond its core radio broadcasting business, Radio One owns Interactive One (http://www.interactiveone.com/), an online platform serving the African-American community through social content, news, information, and entertainment, which operates a number of branded sites, including NewsOne, TheUrbanDaily, HelloBeautiful, Community Connect Inc. an online social networking company, which operates a number of branded sites, including BlackPlanet, MiGente, and AsianAvenue, and an interest in TV One, LLC (http://www.tvoneonline.com/), a cable/satellite network programming primarily to African Americans.
