The Buffalo News, like every other major newspaper around the country, is looking for ways to save itself. Subscriptions are declining. The classified business has never been the same since Craigslist. And while revenue has fallen off a cliff, the News still enjoys the luxuries of paying union wages to their surprisingly large staff.
So what’s next for the News? Well, unlike their previous decision to tell the internet to go away, today the News launched a daily deal site. You’re likely familiar with daily deal sites as a new one launches every 45 seconds or so. Groupon was the original in the field and, thanks to their startling success, everyone who reads Techcrunch has launched a Groupon clone. Sweetfind.com is the News’ daily deal site (though their article references both sweetfind.com and sweet-find.com) and today the site is offering a discount on a swedish massage at Excuria Salon. So far, they’ve sold 70 massage deals.
The News opted not to build the technology themselves for this new site and instead are using DealCurrent which allows other sites to private label their daily deal technology.
Predictably, the rise of these daily deal sites has resulted in some horror stories. There are a number of small business owners who weren’t entirely sure what they signed up for who endured more costs than benefits even when selling large amounts of daily deal certificates. While some speculate that this phenomenon will be the undoing of the daily deal trend, the category keeps growing and growing. And The Buffalo News is going to try to take advantage of that growth.
So who wants a cheap massage? And no, we’re not talking about the type of massages that are advertised in the back of Artvoice.
P.S. To our friends at the Buffalo News, it’s “Buffalo” not “Buffallo.” Typos happen to all of us.