AM Costa Rica is actually getting worse, much WORSE (maybe Jay Brodell, the editor-in-chief, is thinking about retiring soon and grabbing all the advertisement revenue he can before he goes- who knows?). Go to their front page on ANY day, advertisements everywhere, so jammed packed in fact, they're now placing ads above their own AM Costa Rica 'header'. 'One' main story pretty much surrounded in a sea of blinking lawyers, brothels and casino ads. Looks like a cheap, 'What happens in Vegas' brochure.*I've written about AM Costa Rica before- links to the right under 'Stuff I've written'
BUT, I know the advertisers are happy, very HAPPY because AM Costa Rica gets a lot of 'clicks'- thousands, everyday. But why so many clicks if AM Costa Rica SUCKS? Seriously, if Jay Brodell started AM Costa Rica today, it would be just one MORE in the zillions of below-average, 'aggregate' blog (news) sites created for the sole purpose of making a couple bucks utilizing google adsense. He wouldn't make enough to pay his cable bill.
But he didn't. Jay Brodell started AM Costa Rica about 9 years ago... gotta give him props for that but think of it this way, AM Costa Rica is like the 'OLDEST' and 'ONLY' liquor store in a town of 50,000. Their might not be a great selection, but when the pickins are slim, believe me, any ol' beer will do- and that's AM Costa Rica.The other reason they're popular is, well, like I said, they're a GREAT referral site... sorta like a Costa Rica yellow pages for expats and people thinking about living here. A 'Yellow Pages' wrapped in a thin veneer of "journalism" and that my
friends is why the advertisers are HAPPY. If you absolutely don't know where to
start your Costa Rica INFO search, they're FRONT page has most of the bases covered, in ads: residency lawyers, accountants and tax people, cosmetic surgery doctors and dentists, shipping containers businesses and of course, real estate folks etc. But here's the beauty, which Jay Brodell obviously knows. AM Costa Rica does well in 'keyword' searches, so, when you come across an AM Costa Rica 'news story', it's got all that great "How to live, move and re-locate etc" advertisements to go with it. You may not end up using any of the advertised people or businesses, but you can bet advertisers love the fact there's also a good chance you WILL. 
You might want to consider the businesses or people who advertise on AM Costa Rica as well. Personally, I'd rather link to 'quality', which AM Costa Rica clearly isn't. If I were a potential advertiser on AM Costa Rica I would demand Jay Brodell UPDATE his pathetic excuse for a website, hire more experienced writers who can produce quality content and report the who, what, why, where and how without throwing in their not so subtle, 2 cents worth, before I even considered advertising on AM Costa Rica. I guess with AM Costa Rica and its advertisers, it's more like, 'Birds of a feather'.I wish I had the resources to start something like, 'AM Costa Rica ALTERNATIVE, the REAL news source Monday thru Friday.' Hey, I'm not stupid, those are good 'keywords'... gotta give Mr. Brodell is due but I sure wish I could use them against him.
The following song is dedicated to Jay Brodell:
TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!
5 comments:
Don't waste you time with AM Costa Rica. Read a new quality publication for thoughtful, intelligent people put out by expats in the San Ramon area--Neotropica.
Go to www.neotropica.info
Stephen Duplantier, Editor
Neowhat? I don't think so. That thing is no more a news source than is AMCostaRica. But, you passed over the most important need for a 'news' source to attend: who, what, why, where, when.......many years ago, in high school journalism, that is what was stressed. There is no 'I' in news. And, what we've arrived at, after all these years of TV talking heads, is people who are incapable of reporting the basics, and instead - no matter the place you've gone to get your 'news' fix, you get personal opinions, and worse, commercials pushed by the publisher's point of view.
Yeah jd, couldn't agree more. The BIGGER problem is, most seem ignorant of the fact they're being fed propaganda... and that's scary. Then they 'repeat' what they believe to be true.... and true it becomes.
I knew of Brodell during his
Colorado days on the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel and then as a professor at University of Denver. Jay is not all that bad. He's getting old, older than I, and that's old! Having to put 6-8 pages to bed 5X a week gets very old, even with oodles of advertisements and fluff and puffery. However, there is a viable place in the CR marketplace for a 5 day daily that does real news. Jay should either get with it or quit and get a life.
Cy Bolinger
Published journalist
There's just no excuse. He has to be making decent money. He could put a little back into it. It could be such a valuable resource. I say retire and go sip margaritas.
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