Saturday, July 28, 2012

DealChicken | As stocks fall, echoes of tech bust

Just about every Internet company is grappling with the transition to a mobile world, turning groups of people into cash-generating customers on a hand-held device is clearly an immense task.

Shares of Groupon -- leader in the online coupon industry Gannett's chasing with DealChicken -- traded at new lows this week. And Facebook's stock plunged 12% yesterday, hitting another post-IPO low.

Still, in a bright spot, Apple is considering investing hundreds of millions into Twitter.

Meanwhile, GCI's stock rose 1.6% yesterday, closing at $14.38, as the broadly based S&P 500 index jumped 1.9% and the more widely watched Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.5%.

16 comments:

  1. DealChicken will be in a better place when we all stop thinking of it as trying to top groupon. It will generate some extra money for Gannett. It is supposed to provide more value for the advertiser with the extra promotions we provide. We just have to attract more qualified buyers on our email lists. I have seen it time and time again that merchants choose us over Groupon or LivingSocial because of our local presence for many years.

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  2. D.O.D. is DOA. SHARK = JUMPED. Deal Chicken is Kentucky Fried - and definitely not GOLDEN. Run, do not walk to the nearest EXIT.

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  3. Love 5:44 excellent insight and superb candor about a product he knows nuttin about. Jump the shark means something was great vare you now saying this product was great and now has jumped the shark. If so missed the great part. This is a good line that makes more money than some other properties which is probably better than jumping shark

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  4. Deal Chicken is one of the few Gannett properties that is generating revenue. It is strange that it's being compared to the groupon. Groupon is a completely different company with different management. Do people compare the success of McDonalds according to the rate of success at Bob's Burgers. (The answer should be "no," they are two completely different companies and the overall success depends upon management and expenses.)
    Gannett employees would be happy to know that DealChicken is generating revenue, sustaining jobs, and creating new jobs in this challenging economy. It is already an enormous success for Gannett.

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  5. 5:44,
    You seemed to be obsessed with "shark jumping," and inject the phrase into every inch of the Gannett Blog. Unfortunately, your banality and negativity is not only transparent it's tiresome. Perhaps you can go jump a shark and if we're lucky, you'll come up short. And, while you are attempting to jump a shark, you can stew on the knowing that the DealChicken buisness model has proven to be a great success.

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  6. I love Deal Chicken, it's the best product that Gannett currently has. I heard that the creator of Deal Chicken's business model, Audra Janacheck, was let go from the company. She submitted the idea to the DIG company-idea submission. They should offer that woman money to come back and continue inventing products for us.

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  7. The problems with DealChicken are the same as any Gannett issue. Slow to adapt and late to the party. I dont see anything different with DealChicken in terms of the deal of the day space. If you put the website together next to Groupon its almost the same thing but different colors and a god awful chicken. And what do the merchants get with us? An ad in the paper and website. Big friggen deal! Merchants wonder WHY they sell so many less vouchers than on Groupon or LivingSocial because we give them more advertising. Poor sales rep then has to tell them that the email lists are unqualified. If DealChicken wants to be successful, innovate, don't just copy groupon and slap an ad in the paper and think you're growing.

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  8. @8:28

    Deal of the Day is what has jumped the shark. Deal Chicken is the Gannett brand or version of Deal of the Day. D.O.D. as a concept is what "was great" and now struggles to maintain an audience, renew participating advertisers who have tired of discounting their most valued asset - their product.

    Groupon ? Living Social? How are they doing?

    There are D.O.D. sites in every town, tied to every radio station and newspaper and some standalone efforts too - like Rue La La? ring a bell?

    The concept - was great. The playing field is far too crowded, far too busy and far too filled with lack luster deals from leery and weary retailers who feel the same way and now consumers are tired and opting out because the deals are lame.

    "Was great / isn't anymore" = Shark Jumped and used in the correct vernacular.

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  9. At my site, Deal Chicken is doing very well. So well they hired another salesperson to help out.

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  10. Gannett was slow on the roll-out (years in the making). The business model for Gannett's deal site was submitted prior to the release of Groupon and any other deal site. I do not know why Gannett took so long to rollout the product. And, in the process Gannett did miss out on creating a more prevalent identity through an early release. However, in keeping with the original business model, our company is cross promoting deal~chicken through our different areas of advertising media (newspapers, tv-stations, websites). Also our business model utilizes our current sales force on local and national levels. Prior to Deal-chick, there was concern about bringing in additiional revenue, especially on our local sales level. Deal chicken had addressed that issue and we have been able to maintain a great deal of our local sales staff that we may have otherwise lost.

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  11. 10:46, the setting for all email campaigns are "qualified"... Meaning the full email address is required.

    Only internal corporate email systems deal in unqualified email addresses.

    I am not sure where you got that email reference from, but it wasn't an email campaign in reference to Deal chicken.

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  12. The original discussion on the name referenced someone known as the "deal-chick." Some folks thought "chick" maybe misconstrued as derogatory, so it unfortunately evolved into "chicken." However, I prefer deal-chick myself.

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  13. Jim, I think it's a stretch to label this post "DealChicken." I know you mention Groupon, but it really doesn't give anything newsy on DealChicken other than it's one of Gannett's Internet initiatives and Gannett has a stock price. Just an observation. Keep it up!

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  14. Sorry, but if you knew how much some of the contractors supporting the Chicken are making at GMTI, you would rethink your stance on the profitability of the Chicken.

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  15. It must be making some money if they're flying all of the sales reps out to corporate next week for training

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  16. The "deal chick" has brought in serious revenue... Thank you "AJ," you're the original deal chick and your business idea is helping in many ways.

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Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

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