The U.S. Local News Network says that its San Diego News Network site is launching a weekly print edition of its best news stories. Print editions have been looked at by other sites to raise visibility for the site and reinforce advertising relationships. InsiderPages actively promoted a print edition in Pasadena several years ago.

President Chris Jennewein says that the SDNN print edition “will be promotion for us on one level, and a real business opportunity on another. People who get it in Del Mar and La Jolla will go to our Web site, and advertisers who are still wary of online can be coaxed on through print.”

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Daily deals are one of the hottest new areas for local advertising and promotions, with Groupon, Living Social and more than 150 other players rolling out their own versions. At least two companies, Click-N-Shout and Deal Current, are targeting local media companies as partners. Basically, they’ll provide the technical and logistical know-how, and the media companies would provide sales and marketing. Both companies launched dueling products in San Diego this month with The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Sign On San Diego and the upstart San Diego News Network.

Deal Current CEO Jimmy Hendricks says he’s carved the company from Artistic Hub, a 10-person firm that’s been providing support for various media properties for two-and-a-half years, including Time Warner Cable, the Oakland Raiders and Active.com, where he previously worked on its tennis vertical.

Deal Current launched in November, when it began developing Daily Deal with SDNN, which had used the company to build several photo contests involving the San Diego Chargers, pets, etc. But the company’s ambitions go beyond daily deals.

“Our goal is to build a suite of private-label solutions for media partners to engage their visitors and to increase revenue,” says Hendricks. Just this week, for instance, the company launched several online contests for Entercom, the radio station group. “Content software is too expensive” for media companies to build on a one-off basis, he notes.

Regarding the Daily Deal, Hendricks expects to be announcing a number of white-label deals with media partners. Hendricks compares his efforts to Click-N-Shout, which he calls a “redirect” that requires use of a Click-N-Shout URL and branding.

“Media partners can run their own program and embed our software on their site,” says Hendricks. Deal Current also provides full turn-key solution including sales training, promotional plans, customer support and operations.

Whether embedded or redirected, Hendricks believes the key to success for daily deals is going to be the quality deals. “It won’t work without good merchants and good advertisers,” he says. It is also important not to dilute the quality control so that only the most interesting and desired advertisers are featured.

Ultimately, Hendricks believes the daily deal market will shake out to top consumer brands such as Groupon and Living Social, and leading local media plays as well. “All the small guys with 5,000 e-mails are going to get pushed out,” he says.

Deal Current hopes to mine the best local media partners. Partnerships will be offered on an exclusive basis for the first six months or so, then complementary local media partners may be added as well (i.e., radio stations with newspapers).

In San Diego, for instance, the San Diego News Network is partnered with San Diego 6 TV and with  San Diego Gay and Lesbian News, a niche site with 68,000 monthly users. Local sites like SDGLN may not have enough traffic on their own, but they’ll do well banded together, says Hendricks. Some deals may be structured so that media companies receive affiliate commissions from others in the market.

The post Deal Current Hopes to Level ‘Daily Deal’ Playing Field for Local Media appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Daily deals are one of the hottest new areas for local advertising and promotions, with Groupon, Living Social and more than 150 other players rolling out their own versions. At least two companies, Click-N-Shout and Deal Current, are targeting local media companies as partners. Basically, they’ll provide the technical and logistical know-how, and the media companies would provide sales and marketing. Both companies launched dueling products in San Diego this month with The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Sign On San Diego and the upstart San Diego News Network.

Deal Current CEO Jimmy Hendricks says he’s carved the company from Artistic Hub, a 10-person firm that’s been providing support for various media properties for two-and-a-half years, including Time Warner Cable, the Oakland Raiders and Active.com, where he previously worked on its tennis vertical.

Deal Current launched in November, when it began developing Daily Deal with SDNN, which had used the company to build several photo contests involving the San Diego Chargers, pets, etc. But the company’s ambitions go beyond daily deals.

“Our goal is to build a suite of private-label solutions for media partners to engage their visitors and to increase revenue,” says Hendricks. Just this week, for instance, the company launched several online contests for Entercom, the radio station group. “Content software is too expensive” for media companies to build on a one-off basis, he notes.

Regarding the Daily Deal, Hendricks expects to be announcing a number of white-label deals with media partners. Hendricks compares his efforts to Click-N-Shout, which he calls a “redirect” that requires use of a Click-N-Shout URL and branding.

“Media partners can run their own program and embed our software on their site,” says Hendricks. Deal Current also provides full turn-key solution including sales training, promotional plans, customer support and operations.

Whether embedded or redirected, Hendricks believes the key to success for daily deals is going to be the quality deals. “It won’t work without good merchants and good advertisers,” he says. It is also important not to dilute the quality control so that only the most interesting and desired advertisers are featured.

Ultimately, Hendricks believes the daily deal market will shake out to top consumer brands such as Groupon and Living Social, and leading local media plays as well. “All the small guys with 5,000 e-mails are going to get pushed out,” he says.

Deal Current hopes to mine the best local media partners. Partnerships will be offered on an exclusive basis for the first six months or so, then complementary local media partners may be added as well (i.e., radio stations with newspapers).

In San Diego, for instance, the San Diego News Network is partnered with San Diego 6 TV and with  San Diego Gay and Lesbian News, a niche site with 68,000 monthly users. Local sites like SDGLN may not have enough traffic on their own, but they’ll do well banded together, says Hendricks. Some deals may be structured so that media companies receive affiliate commissions from others in the market.

The post Deal Current Hopes to Level 'Daily Deal' Playing Field for Local Media appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

The San Diego Union-Tribune and the upstart San Diego News Network are launching competing “Daily Deal” products, with Facebook and Twitter accompaniments, and will try to eat into the lead in the local market that has been assumed by Groupon (and Living Social and many others).

The SDUT launches its Groupon-like “Sign On San Diego Daily Deal” tonight at midnight with a special offer to get $50 worth of grub at Acqua Al 2, a chic Italian eatery, for $25 (and actually, just $15 if customers use their $10 deal bucks for signing up or referring a friend). Under rules of the promotion, 50 people need to sign up for it within a 24-hour period. Six people signed up for the deal within the first hour.

The SDUT’s Daily Deal sits on a platform provided by Click-N-Shout, a Cleveland-based company — one of apparently 155 rivals, per Groupon — that is testing the waters for newspapers with the SDUT. The newspaper’s sales forces have been offering the Daily Deal as part of their portfolio for a few weeks, and there is roughly a month’s worth of inventory in the system now.

Site GM Mike Hodges notes that The Daily Deal is hardly entering virgin territory. Roughly 80 percent of potential advertisers have been approached by Groupon or other Deal-a-Day services. But the newspaper believes it has many advantages over the competition, including the ability to promote The Daily Deal on the right-hand corner of the cover of every print issue and a database of 90,000 “special offer” e-mail subscribers.

Hodges believes The Daily Deal will prove complementary to other special e-mail offers that have long been provided by the newspaper, and notes that it is possible that many users will get a daily deal and special offer in the same day. Newspaper advertisers are being approached first.

Meanwhile, The San Diego News Network, the flagship of the fledgling U.S. Local News Network hyperlocal network chain, is launching its own, similarly titled “Daily Deal” next Monday, April 12. Built to custom specs by Deal Current, a local San Diego software company run by Jimmy Hendricks, the site has sold out its first month of inventory with local companies such as Hairspray salon, Vagabond Kitchen, Extreme Pizza, The Comedy Store, Cookies by Design, Cupcake Love and All American Grill.

Company President Chris Jennewein says he believes that “very competitive” pricing — presumably more favorable than the 35 percent to 50 percent of coupon value assessed by Groupon — will make a difference. It is also important “to have a sales executive from a local company that you can trust rather than a telemarketer,” he says.

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