Interesting tidbit via local radio maven Steve Moravec and RBR.com: Salem Communications, which owns WWTC-1280 “The Patriot” in the Twin Cities, has snapped up the Jesus.org domain for its web network.
Salem acquired local rightblogger Ed Morrissey’s slightly less celestially exalted Hot Air national site eight months ago to go with Townhall.com. The company also controls Christian station KKMS-AM and business station KYCR-AM in the Twin Cities.
The marriage of the political right and conservative evangelical Christians has endured for decades now, but the Jesus.org acquisition may represent a defensive move. You may wonder who controls the more top-of-mind Jesus.com: A group of liberal churches who support gay and lesbian rights.
That’s just not how Salem rolls. In a news release, Salem web exec Stephen McGarvey states: “We see in academia and in our culture, many voices undermining the significance of the most important person to walk the face of the earth. We’ve built Jesus.org to assert both the historical truths of Jesus Christ’s life, and the truth of the Gospels. Our goal is to create a trusted source of answers for anyone with questions about the significance of Jesus Christ.”
The Patriot ranks 21st in the local radio market, while KKMS and KYCR are not in the Top 25. According to Quantcast, Hot Air’s traffic is roughly comparable to the Pioneer Press’s Twincities.com.
My guess is that the life, ministry, teachings and actions of Jesus are far more accurately represented on Jesus.com than they will be on Jesus.org,…
where, as most reichwing conservative “Christians,” do, they’re far more likely to feature and underline those portions of the Old Testament, the Apostle Paul and other Epistle writers; all the scattered snippets of scripture that they most agree with politically, or that can be bent to serve and support their preexisting ideas,…
even though Jesus contradicted those ideas and ideals by his own attitudes and actions, if not his actual words.
“According to Quantcast, Hot Air’s traffic is roughly comparable to the Pioneer Press’s Twincities.com.>
No. Twincities.com is directly measured, reaching an estimated million readers a month and is #1,809. Hotair.com is estimated at reaching 594,000 readers a month and is #3,342. David, that’s not close to be roughly comparable, especially when the hotair.com numbers are not directly measured by Quantcast. It’s been my experience that Quantcast actually overestimates traffic when it cannot measure it directly. Even if you take the estimate seriously, there’s a pretty wide gap between 594,000 and 1M.