Two months ago, before Google considered buying online deals site Groupon for up to $6 billion, a Wall Street analyst asked Chief Operating Officer Gracia Martore about digital ventures she would like to buy. Her response, according to the transcript:"The good news is that, from a local innovation standpoint, we are testing a number of local products along the lines of a Groupon and some other things out there that are interesting. If I told you I coveted something, there would go my negotiating power. So let's just say that there are probably some things that we could add to our digital portfolio that would further strengthen it, at the right price as always."
Yes, and so how is the testing going, Gracia? In the meantime, while we test the idea, Groupon has accumulated 35 million customers and is threatening to eat us alive. We have accumulated so much of a reputation in the digital world we can't even attract a new chief digital office to oversea our vast digital offerings.
ReplyDeleteAs far as coveting properties, where Gracia, are you going to get the money?
Gracia is a liar. We are NOT testing anything nor do we have a plan for a "group on" offer. Some of the losers in Phoenix have tried to build a "coupon" site, but Mike Coleman has failed miserably.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing here and she should be fired for not being honest.
Jim: "up to $6 billion," not million.
ReplyDeleteGroupon has 35 million subscribers, no printing presses, no press operators, no retiree benefits or packages, no journalists, no content other than advertising. What a beautiful business model! Garcia can look for the right price all she wants but she won't find it.
ReplyDeleteThe good news is that with the right offers, it should be very, very easy to replicate. But is Gannett able to trade high cost newspaper ads for lower priced Groupon type offers? It simply isn't a model on its on that can sustain Gannetts other operations.
It's a shame that the newspaper ad supported model is vanishing, but it is. Journalist should consider how digital can save good journalism, newspapers no longer can.
I disagree with 11:02. A Groupon like clone would work well in Metromix. There are all sorts of these operations out there, and it is just Groupon that is getting media attention. Livingsocial.com is another one offering up to 90 percent discounts.
ReplyDeleteI agree that a Groupon clone could work well with a Metromix. My point is that merely trading dollars (newspaper ads) for dimes (Groupon ads) isn't sustainable. Which is my issue with Gannett's digital strategy. They have consistently looked for the 'next big thing' instead of taking a fully integrated approach to combining digital throughout their operations.
ReplyDeleteWhen is Gannett going to develop something on its own?
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't Gannett, which never tires of touting itself as the nation's biggest newspaper company, come up with Groupon or Livingsocial?
Has Gannett's managerial model that awards ass kissers left it devoid of innovation?
Gannett's like the old General Motors. The lag between reaction and delivery is so long that Gannett never catches up with the present.
Has Martore ever used a coupon?
ReplyDeleteThanks, 10:04; I've fixed that.
ReplyDeleteDoes testing involve promoting competitor's offerings?
ReplyDeleteIf so, that would explain why Cincinnati published a story today telling readers and area businesses about how well Groupon works. Though, Groupon’s e-mail database of 186,000 plus Cincinnati subscribers (it increases by 1,000 more each day) says this story would have sadly reached more had Groupon delivered it, not the Enquirer.
Any area advertiser not using Groupon, if they’re smart, will likely be encouraged to perform a “test” of their own now. Enquirer advertisers need only shrink their ads and or drop some entirely to free up money to easily create a Groupon offer that would be far more compelling than what they’d likely ever run in the newspaper.
Unfortunately, ignoring Groupon won’t mean they'll go away but unless Gannett’s somehow jumped in and quietly stopped its sale to Google for its own consumption no paper should be promoting them as highly as Cincinnati did here, if at all. Amazingly, this story even cites how Reach Magazine another Cincinnati competitor has its own version too yet nothing about Gannett’s like offerings or it’s “testing”.
http://tinyurl.com/24xx7u8
Newspapers were launched as the penny press, with the costs of paying for a newsroom financed by the sales of thousands of papers for 1 cent each. It worked then. In this digital age, we have to think in those terms again, and the old addage that from little acorns grow mighty oaks. Yes, digital is cents, but Groupon looks to me different because they are taking half of the revenues of the coupons -- i.e. $12.50 of a $25 coupon for products worth $50. Remember also this is going to be digital only, and not newspaper display ads costing $25,000 for a full page, or whatever. Groupon doesn't work in print.
ReplyDeleteI think what we are discovering here is that this company still is thinking print, and not thinking digital. For all the rhetoric of information centers, etc., we are still newspapers. We won't survive with that thinking.
Groupon is going to regret not taking Google's offer (anybody remember Yahoo and Microsoft?). It's more marketing than technology, and the barriers to entry are way too low. In fact, Gannett properties already have a Groupon solution if they're using UPickem. Retail negatives will hurt the business model, and it won't last.
ReplyDeleteNo regrets for Groupon. Watch as they float an IPO on the base of this (incredbily hyped) publicity. As I see it there are a lot of competitors out there for what is a good idea. If I were Groupon, i would have grabbed for the Google offer and retired. But we will see.
ReplyDeleteThis has to be a lesson for all of us wedded to this print product. Hell, that includes me. I love print. I was raised in print. I have printer's ink in my blood. The smell of a freshly printed paper is the closest smell to an orgasm that I know. But I look at this Groupon product and I see the advertisements that supported me drifting someplace else that I don't know. There is a snake that has entered my house.
ReplyDeleteAnybody remember "Planet Discover", the also ran search engine that Gannett just had to buy? Nothing like being late to the party - again. What do those 7 figure failures do to earn their money again? oh that's right, they layoff and furlough the people actually doing the work so they can collect a bigger bonus.
ReplyDeleteWay to go, leadership losers!
Million instead of billion! Hahahahahahahaha!
ReplyDeleteGood first-year writing mistake, Hopper.
1:04 - We're still a news company, thank God. Cincinnati gets that apparently. So if Groupon is doing well, it is worthy of coverage even if it's a competitor. Head-in-the-sand isn't a smart approach to news, even if the news isn't so good about our industry or our company. If we withhold stories because they might affect advertising, we should just cut the BS, hire flaks and become a PR firm. If it's just the money you're after, that's where it is.
ReplyDeleteThe Washington Post is already doing this in the DC area with a site called the Capitol Dish. Daily discounted restaurant coupons for 50% off.
ReplyDelete