Friday, March 27, 2009

Are things getting too cozy for Gannett's Cozi?

Last June, Gannett invested a reported $8 million in the start-up, which offers free online calendars and other Web-based tools, aimed at the lucrative consumer market around families. The deal for Cozi was one of the small investments GCI made as it stepped gingerly into the digital arena. It would logically pair with MomsLikeMe and HighSchoolSports.net. Gannett got a seat on the five-member board of directors, which it handed to Michael Maness, vice president of innovation and design.

But now, it looks like Gannett may see competition escalate: Social network goliath Facebook yesterday launched a Family Groups section. "The company has created a new landing page where users can create groups specifically targeted to their family,'' Nick O'Neill writes on the AllFacebook blog. "While there is nothing unique about the end product, what is unique is the way in which Facebook is promoting the creation of new groups that are private only to family members."

One potential reason, O'Neill says: Storing information about family networks is extremely valuable, and Facebook wants to keep that data private. "Facebook also is clearly using this as a way to drive new user registrations," O'Neill writes. "As there has been a surge in new user registration among mothers, Facebook would like to expand that to be the entire family."

(Yup: I also took note of O'Neill's reference to more mothers registering. Not an especially good sign for MomsLikeMe.)

East Tennessee blogger Katie Allison Granju of MamaPundit doesn't see Cozi surviving: "Families are already on Facebook. Why would they add an additional social networking platform to their online toolboxes when Facebook already offers all the stuff they want. My prediction? They won’t."

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green rail, upper right.

8 comments:

  1. Cozi was the wrong product, but it was a relatively cheap investment. Its purchase was the result of a group of favored Gannett executives who were brought in from around the country to find something new digitally for the company. It gave them a sense of power and authority .... like when you give your kids an allowance and you know they'll blow it, but you love your kids and do it anyway.

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  2. COZI sucks. Maness touted this dog and now he is pretending this wasn't his idea. We do not see anyone clicking on the link they placed on our site. Apparently they are way behind in downloads.

    Jim Lenahan is in charge of this now as Maness has abandoned it for his next project.

    Maness brought the founder of Cozi, Robbie Creap, to present to the leadership trainees and we all thought this guy was so arrogant and immature.

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  3. Our local site barely acknowledged the existence of cozi. If you don't believe enough in your product to promote it, the public won't believe in it either.

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  4. Cozi is a plucking waste, what moron thought of this and that crap Pluck. Gannett is a follower in everything digital, always scared to take the lead. You acaully think a picture of a refrigerator door and a stupid name are going to get people to sign up for this crap? what the pluck is wrong with you morons? then pluck, who the hell came up with that stupid name. try being innovative with something instead of being scared copycats. who wants to log onto a slow site that dosen't work half the time to wait 15 minutes for it to load to post thier kids practice tim??? freaking stupid. and then everyone can log onto pluck to complain about the cat stucck in tree story that always is on the front page. get someone with some fresh ideas instead of copying and swindling by with everyone else's ! pluck cozi! get a clue, quit living the past, you've been too plucking cozi for too long.

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  5. I can't "plucking" believe that Jack Williams still has a "plucking" job. Everything he touches turns to dog shit. What a "plucking" arrogant know-nothing. Can anyone out there tell me that this douche bag actually knows what he's doing?

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  6. Robbie Creap? Sounds like a real stand up guy.

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  7. Cozi is a pretty cool tool. I dont think i hear about it being marketed though. I only checked it out because i heard gannett bought it. I did like it.

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  8. Wait are Moms actually using the groups on Facebook? Are Moms actually on Facebook? I love the anecdotal blurb provided by the blogger but there's no supporting data. I'm not saying they are on Cozi either but last time I looked the Moms audience was deeper on Myspace.


    It's easy to tear something down when you don't have a horse in any type of race. My advice is to get all the facts before throwing out opinion like this. Poor excuse for reporting Jimbo, Poor excuse indeed.

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