At opposite corners of the niche universe, you have Thrillist for men and Comcast-owned Daily Candy for women. Both lifestyle products, founded as email newsletters/shopping guides, have jumped aboard the deals bandwagon, working with Group Commerce Inc. as their tech provider. They also have a common association with former AOL Time Warner President (and current Clear Channel Entertainment Chairman) Bob Pittman, who has invested widely in the interactive local media space.

Thrillist has moved in additional directions. A year and a half ago, it bet big on trendy clothing for its core, male demographic. It acquired Jackthreads, a members-only Gilt-like clothing company for guys, which is promoted throughout the site. Jackthreads now represents more than half the company’s $40 million annual revenues. Deals are also major contributors to overall revenues.

Mike Rothman, GM of Thrillist Rewards, told us the combination of the events newsletter, the deals and the clothing site has reinforced and pushed up the five-and-a-half-year-old site’s broad appeal. Now, the core site has grown to more than 3 million subscribers and 2.5 million unique visitors. The Jackthreads site has 1.2 million unique visitors. The Thrillist Rewards deals platform separately has 650,000 subscribers. The Rewards deals are especially curated for the readers, who average 30 years old (think beer).

“The audience was being underserved,” says Rothman. The site had 19 local editions but was mostly being sold to advertisers on a national basis. Now the site is bent on developing local sales — pushing especially hard on deals. It currently has sales teams set up in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and will add “a couple more” markets later this year. The site will get additional volume via syndication of its deals that it has with marketers such as New York Magazine.

Clear Channel’s Bob Pittman and Thrillist’s Mike Rothman are both appearing at BIA//Kelsey’s ILM West Dec. 12-14 in San Francisco.

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At the time, McClatchy Interactive head Chris Hendricks saw it as a net plus for both companies. “They’ve got their space,” but McClatchy offered Groupon more “entry points” to readers and deals, he noted.

Tellingly, Hendricks also said the limited commitment was a net plus. “We have a lot of stuff going on,” said Hendricks. “An affiliate marketing program fits in better,” and “lets us get out of the gate.” Similar logic was apparently used by Media General and Tribune, which signed with Groupon around the same time.

Now, McClatchy appears to have found its sea legs in the deals space. While it will apparently maintain a relationship with Groupon, it has opted to invest heavily in the white-label route via Second Street Media‘s Deadline Deals platform, which now serves more than 150 publishers.

In a statement, Hendricks said –without commenting on the fate of its relationship with Groupon — that a private-label deals platform is a perfect fit with FindnSave, Travidia’s deals-and-offers portal that will eventually launch in 21 of McClatchy’s 28 markets. FindnSave pairs daily deals with other offers, such as weekly sales, coupons and grocery cents off offers.

McClatchy isn’t the only newspaper company with news in the deals space. Hearst Newspapers announced last week that it would join MediaNews Group and Freedom Interactive as partners of Analog Analytics, which says it now serves 850 local media properties. Freedom’s Orange County Register recently did more than $188,000 on one deal (a heavily discounted boat ride to Catalina Island).

Group Commerce Inc., similarly, recently announced a deals partnership with The New York Times Co., among other media companies.

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The tie with major online newsletters such as Daily Candy and Thrillist is especially interesting as they come with e-mail lists already at the core of their businesses. They also represent different targeted audiences: shopping-oriented females and action-oriented males. Specific audience targeting is a core focus for Group Commerce (although it is arguably true for its many white-label rivals as well).

Based in a loft in SoHo, Group Commerce has positioned itself as the “blue chip” in the space, and grants publishers full control over their lists. It has won Series A funding of $8 million from former AOL President Bob Pittman, Spark Capital, Carmel Ventures and Lerer Media Ventures. Pittman’s extensive background should prove to be a major door opener for the company.

CEO Jonty Kelt is appearing on the morning-long Deals SuperForum at ILM East, which is March 21-23 in Boston.

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