December
2002
Business
Spotlight: The Web is full steam ahead with Tramp Steamer Media
By
Joe
Emanski
Tramp Steamer Media is something special in Trenton. The Web editorial
and publishing company has been one of Trenton's prominent successful
new businesses since 1997 and offers something that is essentially
unique in the greater Mercer County area. With people such as Feffer,
Jim Ambrosio and Colleen Miller, who go back as many as 15 years
with the Internet-what most of us think of as "pre-Internet"-Tramp
Steamer is steeped in almost the whole history of the Web.
Today Tramp Steamer offers two different lines of service to its
clients. On one hand, the company delivers expert content development
and publishing services to companies who need to keep their Web
sites up to date with fresh and compelling content. And on the other,
Tramp Steamer publishes the Small Business Web Update.
The Update is a monthly newsletter that gives entrepreneurs and
small-business managers the same sort of professional Web development
advice that they would normally pay high rates for. Article focus
on issues like how often to update a corporate site, what to look
for in a Web developer and what successful small businesses have
done to contain their Web costs.
A Dow Jones veteran, Feffer started Tramp Steamer with an idea to
deliver a different perspective on what in 1997 was a fledgling
online-content market.
"My approach to multimedia began with content," he says.
"It's a publishing question, not a technology question. No
one was approaching interactive publishing that way." Tramp
Steamer began as an editorial and Web development company and evolved
into the editorial/publishing company it is today.
"We started as a typical agency-doing work for whoever needed
it," adds Feffer. Today, Tramp Steamer's editorial and publishing
services business is "pretty much focused on financial companies.
When it comes to moving out of our financial/editorial focus, it's
usually because of local interest." Local clients include the
St. Francis Medical Center and the New Jersey State Museum. National
Tramp Steamer clients include Factiva, Charles Schwab and the NorthStar
Network, a news site serving the African-American community.
The Small Business Web Update has grown to fill a vacuum in the
Web-consulting market. "A lot of small-business people talk
about their frustrations building their Web sites," says Feffer.
Tramp Steamer's combined expertise in the Web and in publishing
made a newsletter a good venture.
"A Web development consultant will cost anywhere from $75 to
$150 an hour, and some of them are very good. But for $49.95, you
get monthly issues of the Update plus 24 e-mail briefings, designed
to be a quick read for the small-business person." Tramp Steamer's
staff members are also available to subscribers for questions about
Web development.
Tramp Steamer began as a client of the Trenton Business and Technology
Center, a business incubator that provides assistance to start-up
firms. Today Feffer is president of the board at the incubator and
Tramp Steamer is one of the Center's success stories.
For Feffer, a regular Trenton Downtowner contributor who moved here
in 1990, the capital city is an ideal location for many reasons,
not the least of which is easy access to clients. As with many of
Trenton's downtown offices, Tramp Steamer gives plenty of time to
the community.
"If we're going to be here, we should do more thanjust come
in in the morning and go home at night," says Feffer. Today
he is president of the board of directors at the Trenton Business
and Technology Center and a member of the Trenton Downtown Association
board. Jim Ambrosio is a member of the Trenton Cyber District team
and Colleen Miller is on the Trenton Small Business Week committee.
Feffer invites other companies to invest in the city as Tramp Steamer
has. "This is a very good time to locate a business here or
buy a building because the city is working with small businesses
better than ever," he says.
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