The Wall Street Journal's article Niche Websites Buck Media Troubles discusses a trend we've covered a lot in the past - the growth of small onllne publishers. 

Small media companies are exploiting new, niche publishing opportunities created by low cost online publishing tools and the Internet's broad distribution. Many of these small media companies are quite valuable and the number of niche media companies is growing rapidly. 

By serving narrow niches, small publishers are able to build audiences and communities that are highly engaged in the niche topic area. These audiences are ideal for advertisers.

Because of their highly targeted audiences, niche sites are well positioned to create sales leads for their advertising partners. And most niche publishers provide their sponsors a wide range of lead generation programs including direct links to advertisers web pages, white papers with links, banner advertising, webinars, podcasts, etc. 

These lead generation program have clear metrics (click through, traffic sent to landing pages, raw and qualified leads and sales, etc.) and companies can easily calculate marketing dollar ROI. 

Just yesterday I talked with a senior executive at a niche media company.  According to the executive, their business continues to grow and their advertisers, seeing a high return on marketing dollars spent with them, are shifting money from other media to their site. 

The executive specifically mentioned lead generation as the key driver of their success.

Developing a successful niche online publishing company is not easy.  Building an audience is tough, competition is intense and creating great content on an ongoing basis is a constant challenge. 

But niche publishers that are able to attract a good audience - and have the business and technical skills to turn that audience into qualified leads for their advertising partners - will be successful.