Red McCombs, a well-known fixture in the business world who co-founded Clear Channel Communications (CCU) and owns a number of auto dealerships in the San Antonio area, has started up a general Christian community Web site called Faithvine.com.
"The main vision behind Faithvine.com is to provide a forum for visitors to discuss real issues, while supplying information and entertainment to the Christian community," Red McCombs Media CEO Jon Flatt says. "Red is playing a big role in making that happen. He has been active in Faithvine's development and will continue to provide his guidance as we grow this exciting online community."
In a statement released by the company, they said they're targeting "an ever-expanding market of established and churchless Christians."
The statement above is part of the problem with the site as I see it. No matter what market you're trying to reach, including everybody, which the above statement asserts, means you're not going to appeal to people with specific interests, or niche audiences.
The other problem is right from the start they don't even cater to the audience they say they're reaching out to. They have people writing articles about those that became atheists while sitting in church buildings. That's just not the type of story many Christians will have any interest in.
Another problem with it to me is its focus on regular news. Who's going to go to a site labeled as "Christian" to see news you can watch anywhere? It would be better to offer news of interest to those you're targeting.
When you try to appeal to everyone you're not going to appeal to anybody. Unless they change things right away, I don't see this going anywhere. It does almost everything wrong for the alleged audience they say they're trying to reach.
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