SonicMonk.com: The Chronicler of the new Rock 'n' Roll Revolution

Added: (Fri Jan 11 2002)

Pressbox (Press Release) - (January 11, 2002) TORONTO - The Revered Order of SonicMonks invite you to break the 'Do Not Disturb' seal on Sonicmonk.com. The Website is an active participant, sometimes ringleader in the weird craziness that fuels rock 'n' roll. As a counterculture pop main stream website, the founders (Matt Mernagh, formerly of ChartAttack.com; Jeffrey Haas, former Director of Sympatico-Lycos Inc.; Andrew Adamson, former webmaster for the Discovery Channel Canada; and Liam Nickerson of BellGlobeMedia) have pushed their talents and experience to create a truly remarkable interactive experience.

"We aspire to be nothing less than the Rolling Stone for Generation Y," says Managing Editor Matt Mernagh. "We're going to define cultural reporting for kids who have never not had a computer at home. These are teens to whom online community, collaboration and creativity are expected as basics, not special features. We want to kick the world's ass!"

SonicMonk.com encourages users to register (for free) and become Disciples who can comment on stories, participate in polls and send Instant Messages to other Disciples. Fostering a sense of community will be one of the key objectives. Users will be able to see who else is online, what the top stories are each day (for both number of times read and number of comments made) as well as participate in discussion boards and crazy contests such as Gonna Get A Crank Call. There will also be exclusive multimedia made available only to Disciples.

"SonicMonk.com combines rock 'n' roll storytelling with serious balls-to-the-wall creative data management on the back-end," explains Publisher Jeffrey Haas. "All our content will be deeply integrated inside a relational database that allows our audience to browse stories contextually. All our articles will have relationships to other stories with similar subjects, topics and categories. There will also be associated polls and links to external information for curious people who need to know more."

To really spread the word, there's going to be prizes available to all in the Swaghole. SonicMonk.com has orchestrated a Gorillaz contest with EMI Music Canada and New York City publicity firm Girlie Action that will offer fabulous prizes to both Canadian and American readers. Also in the Swaghole section of the site are: CDs from Linus Entertainment artists (Ron Sexsmith, Shocore, By Divine Right), David Usher (courtesy of EMI Music Canada) and Mudmen (courtesy of the band) t-shirts, along with Swollen Members and gob prizes (courtesy of Nettwerk).

The site launched with interviews and news about: Sum41, Sloan, The Tea Party's Jeff Martin, Buzz from the Fantomas/Melvins, the Weekend, Our Lady Peace and Slaves On Dope.

The SonicMonk.com Masters are aiming high. Between them, they have worked with all the major media organizations in Canada and have learned through trials of fire what works online and what doesn't. In the first four days of soft launch mode (beginning January 2, 2002), SonicMonk.com had more than 10,000 page views. The full launch with added features will occur on February 4, 2002. Anticipation is that traffic levels will reach 1 Million page views a month before the end of 2002 with a promotional budget of 0 dollars.

As well, to make things even more interesting and challenging, the founders have created a hybrid revenue model that dismisses banner ads entirely. Instead, SonicMonk will sell advertising space based on a magazine model, sell merchandise to Disciples, syndicate articles and solicit donations (tithes) from all.

Please spread the word.


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Contact Matt Mernagh & Jeff Haas for interview requests:

SonicMonk.com
122 St. Patrick
Suite F24, Office 131
Toronto, ON
M5T 2X8
Canada
Phone: The Monastery (416) 977-4724
Email: info@sonicmonk.com