NEWS
LocalPoint Media Inks Deal With Valassis for Online Coupon Partnership
This meaningful opportunity is a must-investigate for all community newspaper
websites. Take advantage of the tremendous revenue potential, outgrowth ad opportunities
and site asset value that this important & timely alliance presents.
“Clearly, the digital space has opened so many new possibilities for publishers
to connect with consumers. We believe that this partnership has great potential
because it aligns the strengths and interests of all of the partners. Valassis has
a reputation among consumers for delivering value content, our clients provide that
value through their products and offers, and local newspapers and their websites
have a connection with readers that make them a great platform.”
Barry Haselden
Valassis Vice President
Stategic Sourcing — Media
7/1/2009 — These days, it’s safe to assume that almost everyone likes to save a buck here
or a buck there. Combine that reality with every newspaper’s desire to find a new
revenue stream and you’ve got two reasons to be completely psyched at the news of
the agreement reached last month between LocalPoint Media and Valassis.
LPM has negotiated a package with Valassis that enables community newspaper websites
to offer visitors the chance to print manufacturer’s coupon via the Valassis redplum.com
site. The technology will not send your readers to a different site; your users
will remain in your domain and will have access to valuable national manufacturer’s
grocery and consumer packaged goods coupons. For every coupon printed, the newspaper
will earn revenue. According to those involved in the just completed agreement,
the ‘per print’ rate negotiated for newspapers to receive from Valassis is far better
than any that could be made by any individual newspaper company.
If you are willing to put a coupon tab in your navigation bar (on any Web sites
that you produce), and have consumers in your market that want money saving coupons,
then you should check out this latest revenue opportunity delivered to you by LocalPoint
Media. Equally exciting, is the category development that this new Valassis element
offers. Imagine the play you can make for local coupons and other related online
ads that emanate from this new valuable component to your site.
Barry Haselden, Valassis Vice President of Strategic Sourcing — Media commented
that “Local newspaper Web sites are incredibly powerful information sources in their
markets, and adding redplum. com content to these sites gives us the opportunity
to broaden our reach in putting value into the hands of consumers.”
Nancy Lane, President of LocalPoint Media and SNA, sees tremendous potential in
this relationship that goes well beyond the ‘per print’ revenue share agreement
that is part and parcel of the deal. Newspapers and their websites should be able
to monetize this valuable online element in many ways including target marketing.
“Smart Web publishers will develop an opt-in email list of people that want to receive
coupons and local deals. This email will be pushed out weekly to this highly targeted
list that will prove to be very valuable to local merchants as well as the national
brands that are running the coupons. As the list grows, the price increases. In
this economy, it should be fairly easy to develop such a list.”
Haselden also praised the audience delivered by community newspapers. “Despite the
explosion of information options, newspapers — and particularly community newspapers
— are still the most powerful source of local news and information,” said Haselden.
Because of this special relationship with their communities that newspapers enjoy,
we continue to be huge believers in the medium for our print advertising, and extending
this relationship to newspaper websites was a logical next step in our partnership.”
Lane says that even newspapers who already get the FSI’s should consider signing
up for the online program. “Providing grocery coupons online will drive traffic
to community newspaper Web sites and allow them to monetize on the local side in
a very meaningful way,” said Lane. “For papers that do not get the printed FSI’s,
this is a terrific opportunity to offer these valuable coupons to their readers.
For those that do get them, this is a smart way to extend the reach to non-subscribers
in the market. I encourage all community Web sites to learn more about the program
and give it serious thought.”
Some Facts
The program officially launches on or around July 1. As of presstime, over 300 newspaper
websites have contracted with LocalPoint Media to join the Valassis online coupon
partnership and fifty five (mainly those represented by the 19 newspaper companies
that own LocalPoint Media) began a test launch in mid-June.
All community newspapers are encouraged to sign up for this audience driving and
revenue generating partnership.