Cox’s new national conservative website to be named ‘Rare,’ will try to distance itself from AJC

Branding oddly focuses a lot on ‘red meat’

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  • Joeff Davis/CL File
  • Site still needs an editor in chief... doesn’t Neal Boortz now have some free time?

Last year, we reported that Cox Media Group, the monolithic company that owns newspapers (including theAtlanta Journal Constitution), radio stations, and probably some human-cloning labs we’ve yet to hear about, was seeking an editor for a “nonpartisan” and “anti-propaganda” website that would cater to a conservative audience. Because there’s obviously a lack of such outlets.

When we asked Cox for more information about this new Atlanta-based website, a spokesman told us only that the company would release “more details a little bit later on as we get closer to launch.”

But we’re an impatient bunch, so we’ll just go ahead and release some details for ‘em.

According to a CMG document leaked anonymously to CL, the website will be a “conservative Huffington Post” and named “Rare.” As in the way you cook your steak. The tagline: “Red is the center.” As in, “being conservative is the middle ground.” It should launch sometime before March, the undated document marked “internal & confidential” reads. (You can view the placeholder page here.)

The website, the document says, came out of market studies that found that “the most valuable customer segments expresses an unmet need for conservative news and conservative lifestyle content aggregation. Notably, however, the range of desired conservative news, opinion and lifestyle content is more diverse than what is presently offered in-market.”

CL discussed the document’s contents with CMG Spokesman Andy McDill. He told us the “general direction outlined in the memo is true and provides the impetus for us launching the site.”