NewcityNet Selects Concrete Media to Build Site

Chicago-based NewcityNet, a national network of 45 alternative city and content sites, selected Concrete Media Construction , the Internet consulting and development unit of Concrete Media Inc. to build its portal site.

NewcityNet said it is second only to Digital Cities (57) in the number of U.S. markets served among the branded city networks.

“With the virtually overnight consolidation of the Web into a small handful of large, mainstream players, both consumers and advertisers will look beyond the bland sameness of these established portals for places that better match their interests and affinities. This is especially true in the case of our audience of bright young city dwellers who have long favored the more iconoclastic sensibilities of the alternative press, which is why we believe the time has come to build a portal site for that kind of content,” said Brian Hieggelk, president and founder of NewcityNet.

“We selected Concrete for a variety of reasons, including their professionalism and the quality of their past work. But mainly because they have a track record of building media sites, both for themselves and for some of our friends in the alternative press.” Billings were not disclosed.

NewcityNet LLC is a subsidiary of New City Communications Inc., a 13-year-old media company based in Chicago that also operates Newcity magazine, an alternative weekly distributed in the Chicago market, along with www.newcitychicago.com, its sister Web site; and Newcity National Sales, a related business that specializes in the sale of national advertising into more than 100 alternative weeklies.

New York-based Concrete Media is focused on building Internet companies for itself and for corporate clients. The company is comprised of three units: Concrete Media Construction, Bolt (the worlds largest teen portal and the “Girls on” Network.