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Portals are important because of the very point you make about
"microniches."  Microniches are merely market segments.  And some of those
segments aren't necessarily micro at all.  AOL is a portal, and they have
millions of customers.  Intentional information seekers are one segment,
people that "like to watch" just like Chance the gardener in "Being There"
are another.  Which group do you think is larger? 

Portals are important because even people who are into microniches don't 
always want to expend lots of time to find things.  In other words are 
interests, time, etc. vary as well, depending on the issue/interest. 
Rather than search out every music site, e.g., just going to one, like 
CDNow, is enough.  Portals can provide "predictable efficiency."

And, sure, tv networks have less business compared to their glory days, 
but still, that 20+ million households and upwards of 40 million people 
watching a new episode of ER tells us that lots of people are going to be 
satisfied with watching, rather than serious intentional information 
seeking, whether they obtain this content over-the-air or from a wire.

I can't say the kind of money people are paying for portals is 
necessarily worth it, but I can see why organizations are seeking them 
out.  And AOL has shown the value in having lots of subscribers, because 
it can then sell exclusivity agreements to companies like TelSave for 
many, many millions of dollars.


Richard Layman, rllayman@netcom.com
  825 6th St. NE, Washington, DC 20002-4325 
  202/544-5722 voice -- 202/429-3976 fax

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