In a historic move, The Readers Digest Association, Inc. has changed its corporate name after 93 years, to Trusted Media Brands, Inc.
Back on June 1, 2015 TheDomains discovered that The Readers Digest Association had acquired the domain name TMBI.com from Get On The Web, but we were not sure “why” at that time, but now we do know why.
TMBI.com had a $16,950 asking price by Get On The Web on a landing page directly on the domain name but it is not known what the actual purchase price of the 4 letter domain name was. We did reach out for comment but have not heard back at time of publication.
TMBI did announce in the recent press release announcing the new name that the new website for the company is TMBI.com.
The domain name TrustedMedia.net was registered on Septermber 11, 2015 and does not appear to be owned currently by the new company TMBI.
TrustedMedia.com is owned by a Alan Lippman according to whois records, with the domain being registered since April 8, 2002 and one would expect both are domains TMBI wouldn’t mind owning.
The long form domain, TrustedMediaBrands.com was registered at corporate domain name registrar MarkMonitor on April 15, 2015 as were the .net and .org domain names by The Readers Digest Association, Inc. who owns a total of about 840 domain names. The longest form, TrustedMediaBrandsInc.com was also registered, along with the .net and .org domain names and owned by the company.
TMB.com would appear to be a perfect fit, as it matches the companies new logo, leaving off the “inc” as many companies do but that domain name is in use by a long running company that offers products and services to entertainment production and staging professionals.
There is a new .media gTLD extension and the domain name Trusted.Media was registered on July 25, 2014 and is owned by a Lyndon Mechielsen according to whois records.
The new TMBI holds 12 brands and some of those are: Reader’s Digest, The Family Handyman, Country and EnrichU to mention a few according to TMBI.com. The website also states: 53 million monthly unique visitors, 40 million readers and 40 million social media fans.
makes NO sense to me. Readers Digest is an iconic brand. tmbi is hard to remember. change only helps if you have some idea of what you are doing. JMO.
Readers Digest brand will remain, The Readers Digest Association, Inc. is the name being changed and that is the corporate name which was changed to Trusted Media Brands, Inc. Sorry for any confusion in the title as it got cropped.
As a consumer, I’d prefer seeing TrustedMedia.com + Trusted.Media. But the TMBI acronym does seem suitably square and corporate.
If they want to separate the umbrella company from the various consumer brands it covers, I suppose a less consumer-friendly naming style – like an acronym – does the job.
This is a great rare example of long tailing around a short .com (unavailable for whatever reason, most likely cost) AND acquiring the 4 letter rather than 3 letter acronym. Nice catch MM! Perceptions are changing!
This action also renders the shorter versions much more difficult to use in the Media space, if not already in use as is the case with TrustedMedia.com. Alan the owner would have to retain ownership in some capacity to retain value because once he sells it, the new owner UDRP liability goes up if it’s ever used in the media space occupied by the new and probably soon to be trademarked TMBI.+ Trusted Media + Trusted Media Brands
Trusted.Media will also be limited use since it was registered after April 15, 2015
Unfortunate for TrustedMedia.com and Trusted.Media as the value of these properties just went way down.
This purchase and use demonstrates another level of complexity in rights and value. Take notes 😉
Once again, great article Jamie !
No matter how the negotiation goes, the sale will still be a five figure.