Groupon has announced that it has signed a national agreement with The McClatchy Company to distribute exclusive content to McClatchy’s websites located in 28 U.S. markets. Groupon is a shopping website that offers daily deals on local goods, services and cultural events across the U.S., Canada, Europe and Latin America. The McClatchy Company is the third-largest newspaper company in the United States and owns and operates The Miami Herald, The Sacramento Bee, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Kansas City Star, The Charlotte Observer and The (Raleigh) News & Observer.
“As leaders and innovators in the space we continue to ask ourselves what’s next. Providing merchants with major alternative channels to run deals is vital. McClatchy is an ideal partnership that blends our respective strengths to provide consumers with unbeatable savings on great experiences in their local markets.”
Visitors to McClatchy websites will see exclusive Groupon deals not available on Groupon.com. Daily Groupon deals will launch first in the Sacramento, Calif., and Kansas City regions with other sites following over the next few months.
For Groupon the agreement is part of a larger initiative to offer a new, incremental revenue stream to major publishers. According to Sean Smyth, Groupon’s VP of business development, Groupon enables publishers to seize consumer interest and generate buzz in their local markets by presenting readers with high-value, unique local market experiences.
Using the principles of collective buying, Groupon negotiates dramatically discounted deals with local businesses. Groupon subscribers receive free daily e-mails alerting them to the deals, which are only activated if a minimum number of people agree to buy. The method encourages subscribers to share the promotion with family and friends via social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter. The approach to local commerce has generated millions in new revenue for local businesses and has saved subscribers more than $285 million.
