[Updated at 12:31 p.m. April 18 ET. In a first-quarter earnings conference call with Wall Street analysts, CEO Craig Dubow confirmed Gannett is expanding Deal Chicken to nearly 60 sites across the nation by the end of the year.]
Yesterday, Gannett posted more job openings for a nationwide expansion of a social-commerce site that sounds very much like Deal Chicken, the online coupon deal-of-the-day service started in Phoenix last September.
By my count, the company has now posted more than 40 such jobs since Tuesday alone, all on Corporate's jobs website. One posting, for what appears to be a top job, general manager, is especially revealing: "This position requires an experienced manager to take charge of a new product: a network of local daily deals sites."
The GM job's location is described simply as "nationwide." All the positions appear to be for Gannett Digital, which is now part of new Chief Digital Officer David Payne's portfolio. He was hired the middle of last month. Unclear is any specific role assigned to Jack Williams, who is president of Digital Ventures, the GCI arm that includes CareerBuilder, the Moms Like Me network, and other properties.
Combined with those I wrote about yesterday, these job postings include sales account executives; site coordinators; operations managers; content managers, and other management positions. They are in Atlanta; Detroit; Grand Rapids, Mich.; McLean, Va.; Minneapolis; Nashville; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Saint Louis; Washington, and the Wisconsin cities of Appleton, Green Bay and Wausau.
Any Deal Chicken expansion would come as online coupon leaders Groupon and LivingSocial add untold numbers of new consumers to subscription bases that already run into the tens of millions. What's more, the two companies are raising hundreds of millions in new investor dollars from private equity and venture capital firms, plus anticipated initial public offerings.
Yesterday, Gannett posted more job openings for a nationwide expansion of a social-commerce site that sounds very much like Deal Chicken, the online coupon deal-of-the-day service started in Phoenix last September.
The GM job's location is described simply as "nationwide." All the positions appear to be for Gannett Digital, which is now part of new Chief Digital Officer David Payne's portfolio. He was hired the middle of last month. Unclear is any specific role assigned to Jack Williams, who is president of Digital Ventures, the GCI arm that includes CareerBuilder, the Moms Like Me network, and other properties.
Combined with those I wrote about yesterday, these job postings include sales account executives; site coordinators; operations managers; content managers, and other management positions. They are in Atlanta; Detroit; Grand Rapids, Mich.; McLean, Va.; Minneapolis; Nashville; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Saint Louis; Washington, and the Wisconsin cities of Appleton, Green Bay and Wausau.
Any Deal Chicken expansion would come as online coupon leaders Groupon and LivingSocial add untold numbers of new consumers to subscription bases that already run into the tens of millions. What's more, the two companies are raising hundreds of millions in new investor dollars from private equity and venture capital firms, plus anticipated initial public offerings.
I smell a rotten plan
ReplyDeleteWho in the hell came up with THAT name??
ReplyDeleteG A N N E T T cupon deals would have been good. Rue La La would have been so much a better name. Living Loco maybe event better. How about Deal It Baby?
ReplyDeleteHow are the various advertising sales people -- Deal Chicken, USCP, broadcasting -- going to avoid tripping over each other in the same markets?
ReplyDeleteSorry, but on my phone that logo looks like it says DedChicken,
ReplyDeleteMaybe the graphic designers in Phoenix should have been fired first instead of last.
What a joke. deal Chicken is an embarrassment. Frank Gannett is rolling over in his grave right now.
ReplyDeleteGood job Mike Coleman. Maybe you will get another Gannett ring. deal Chicken...you lame asses!
Seriously. Is it actually called DEAL CHICKEN???
ReplyDeleteReallY?
How are the various advertising sales people going avoid tripping over each other?
ReplyDeleteGannett has never been concerned with that before. Why start now?
I got reamed this week by one of my customers who was annoyed by having 5 FIVE reps from my paper come in for various products.
What's one more?
Just a matter of curiosity, but how much did it cost to make this site? This doesn't come cost-free, and expenses for creating this site are drawn from the general budgets, probably in this case from Phoenix. At least this doesn't look like it is a Web site like Metromix that required editorial input from the operating centers. Are they getting their money's worth out of these investments. Does Metromix and Moms pay for itself?
ReplyDeleteWhile reading this on Jim's blog, the banner ad across the top is for something called DealFind, a Web site I have never heard of before. We are waaayyy to late with DealChicken.
ReplyDeleteDay late and dollar short! Once again Gannett management reacts too late. Metromix has a deals channel they rolled out last year to Gannett papers. What was management response at a Midwest paper? "We don't think these coupons will last.". Nice work, give those smarty pants another bonus.
ReplyDelete###What was management response at a Midwest paper? "We don't think these coupons will last.". ###
ReplyDeleteYup. Gannett newspapers have had digital coupon services for several years, one on a digital carousel, long BEFORE Groupon.
But no one had the guts to make it happen in a bigger way, probably because the traditional revenue stream from inserts and Sunday coupons was too sacrosanct.
Now it's four years later, and the company struggles to make up ground we once could have had for the taking.
In 17 months, Groupon has grown from a company of 3 million users to one that now gets 50 million users. The company is now valued at $1.35 billion, compared to $3.5 billion for GCI, and last year had $760 million in revenues.
ReplyDeleteLet's say Deal Chicken gets 10 percent of that, it would be 5 million additional readers and $76 millon.
If Deal Chicken were the only competition, perhaps it could pick off 10% of Groupon. But it isn't.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to LivingSocial, there are other established and still-emerging competitors that also want a piece of Groupon's action.
7:00 What is wrong with 1 percent, 500,000 additional readers and $7.6 million? It would be sufficient to finance the bonus for one exec.
ReplyDeleteIf Deal Chicken is such a good deal, why doesn't the Ariz. Republic offer discount subscriptions on its Deal Chicken site? In fact, look at Groupon, and there are no newspaper discount coupon offers.
ReplyDeleteI hear their was a conf call for the Deal Chickey last week. Details please!
ReplyDeleteDeal chicken is going to cause mucho conflict between these new reps and print reps. Watch.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Gannett struggles because nearly every person commenting here is extremely negative and has no hope. Raise your expectations and quit complaining.
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