AmericanTowns 2008 Performance Metrics Affirm Vibrancy of the Hyper-Local Space

Company Reports Increases in Unique Local Content, Visitors, Group Listings, Revenue Metrics, and Partners

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – July 21, 2008 -- AmericanTowns.com, where residents of every town in America can find and share the best local information about their communities, made public today internal performance data on its website’s key accomplishments in 2008 (attached), reaffirming the future growth potential of the hyper-local space. To summarize:

AmericanTowns’ unique Local Platform

community information

over 12 million community events per year;
local news, 800 blogs, local commentary, reviews, over 1,200 press releases from local organizations per week, and 250,000 event postings since late 2007;
125,000 listed community organizations, who can use the site to communicate with members and to post events and announcements to the community;
deeper, richer Community Resources area, with useful local information (train schedules, gas prices, local sales, Wi-Fi, farmers markets) and guides (including reviews) for finding key business services and volunteer opportunities; and
the new 2008 user interface, organizing the above content and web 2.0 tools (maps, videos and more) for every town in America.

Community response is extremely positive, as traffic has more than tripled in 2008 (now at 600,000 monthly uniques), with repeat visits up by 5X. (Source: Google Analytics.) In several cases, town leaders have invited AmericanTowns, as “the craigslist of local information,” to be their community site.

Diversified revenue base now exceeds $10 of revenue per thousand page views, and the Company’s most established towns, serving 3 million people, are now profitable, with all corporate costs fully allocated by region.

Distribution of AmericanTowns content now reaches over 10 million viewers per month through Superpages’ Cityguides, Zvents, Eventful and, through our partners, over 200 other news and event sites; a new Community Calendar widget was released for smaller partners.

“AmericanTowns management has accomplished each of its core goals for the first 6 months of 2008, which we consider to be the core proof points of local,” said Company chairman Ted Buerger. “These include development of truly local content and community connection; strong technology, efficient processes and broad revenue opportunities; positive user response to quality content; rapid growth in both traffic and revenue metrics, without the need for marketing support. Moreover, the content system and technology framework are already scaled to every town in the country and are expandable without limit; at the same time, the costs of ‘feet on the street’ are unnecessary or even counterproductive to our revenue opportunity.”

“We’ve provided the free local platform and core content, so that every town in America has a place to find and share the best local information and insights,” added Jim Maglione, AmericanTowns’ co-president, Community. “We are now focusing on growing our traffic and working collaboratively with people in the communities we serve, allowing them to determine the type of content they want on their AmericanTowns site. Going forward, we’ll also continue to add new features, introduce site enhancements and pursue alliances with best in class partners.”

AmericanTowns is also developing its marketing plan for the second half of 2008, to support broader awareness and deeper use of the site at the local level. Its first mobile application will also be launched in Q3.

Content, revenue, or distribution partners wishing to work with AmericanTowns should contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Community leaders, bloggers, and publishers should contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

About AmericanTowns

AmericanTowns is the leader in collecting and organizing community information for local residents, empowering them to find and share the best local information for their town. For every town in America, AmericanTowns has created a “community webspace” that brings together the nation's most extensive online database of community events, community groups, news, maps, local insights, videos, local resources and special tools for organizations. Local residents can add to, comment on, or otherwise edit this content. Dedicated to connecting citizens, community organizations and locally-focused businesses, AmericanTowns has featured more than 10 million community events in the last 12 months, and offers powerful tools to help more than 120,000 listed community organizations interact more effectively with local citizens. The fastest growing site in the “hyper-local” space, AmericanTowns.com is headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut. Visit www.AmericanTowns.com.

News Coverage:
AmericanTowns Releases Metrics, Ad Data Greg Sterling Screenwerk - 07/21/08

ATTACHMENT: Accomplishments of AmericanTowns.com in 2008:

Completion of town-based local platform that accumulates and organizes community information for every town in America, including:

Expansion of the Company’s unique Community Events Calendar to over 12 million community events per year (vs. 10 million in 2007).
Inclusion in Community Corner of local news, 800 blogs, local commentary and over 1,200 press releases from local organizations per week (vs. 100 in December 2007).
Increase to 125,000 listed community organizations, who can use the site to communicate with members and to post events and announcements to the community (vs. 100,000 in December 2007); over 250,000 posts by groups.
Deeper, richer Community Resources area, with integration of useful local info (wi-fi, train schedules, gas prices, things to do, farmers markets, etc.) and guides (including reviews) for finding key business services and volunteer opportunities.
Launch of a new user interface, organizing the above content and web 2.0 tools (maps, videos and more) for every town in America.

Overwhelmingly positive community response to the new local platform:

Traffic has more than tripled in just 6 months, without marketing support:
Monthly unique visitors have grown from 100,000 at year end to over 300,000 per month in Q2 2008. Current run rate, 600,000 per month. (Source: Google Analytics.)
Emails are overwhelming supportive, calling AmericanTowns “the Craigslist of local information,” and several towns’ leaders have asked AmericanTowns to become their town’s official community website.

Diversified revenue base exceeds $10 rev per thousand page views:

Site wide revenue per thousand page views has risen from $4 per thousand page views to $10 per thousand pages views, while page views per visit have increased.
Revenue from Ad Networks has increased, as has diversification to include Context Web, Marchex’s Adhere system and Yahoo Publisher Network.
Revenue from other partners now totals 50% of revenues, further diversifying the revenue base.
The Company’s most established towns, serving 3 million people, are now profitable, with all corporate costs fully allocated by region.

AmericanTowns unique local content is now distributed through national partners such as Verizon yellowpages provider superpages.com, event specialists Eventful and Zvents, and through the Company’s partners, to 100’s of newspaper websites.
AmericanTowns recently announced its first widget, for its community calendar; the widget offerings will be expanded to include “Tokens” for other local content.
The Company’s first mobile application, for traffic information by cellphone, will be operational in Q3 with more major mobile efforts targeted for 2009.

PR Contacts:
Alfred Leach, 212-481-2826, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Gordon Platt, 212-481-2826, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it