Gannett invests in social networking site
Cory Bergman June 19th, 2008
Gannett has invested in Cozi, a social networking tool that lets family members keep a group journal, share photos, organize chores, share calendars and create to do lists. TechCrunch reports the investment is in the $8 million range. “The Cozi investment could help Gannett as it stitches together an ad network of its 60 local mom sites over the next month,” reports PaidContent, which certainly makes sense.
6 Comments Add your own
1. Dude | June 19th, 2008 at 9:27 am
It looks like you are right. If so, that’s some vision and commitment to a channel/category online, which is pretty hard to find in TV groups most days. If you’re going to play, you better play to win.
2. tdc | June 19th, 2008 at 10:06 am
“stitches together”-
not only a good metaphor when speaking of moms, but the way forward (providing they allow for local control).
3. Doris | June 20th, 2008 at 7:27 am
I’m amazed! Cozi doesn’t do much compared to other products out there. We looked at it, but chose Famundo instead because it provides a lot more of the features we need to truly get organized as a family.
4. Anonymous | June 20th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
I never realized the internet was needed to organize a family. My grandfather was one of NINE.
5. phil | June 20th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Seems to me that this is exactly what all of the TV execs are being told they need to do to compete- establish standalone local verticals (Borrell etc.) Will be interesting to see if it works.
6. Anonymous | June 23rd, 2008 at 4:24 am
It will likely become more frustrating than previous models because these parts will not reform well enough and will not be associated well enough with the parent. You have similar inherent troubles vs. heavy brand promotion of poor sites that are always being “reformulated”. This is counterproductive and strips the margins of the parent through giving advertsiers and viewers alike a negative view of how the company manages it’s overall properties.
Simply building a syndicated, or even LOCAL classifieds database and jamming the air with teasers can’t be all good. KTVB News group does this and proclaimed sometime after launching Zidaho.com that the classifieds were “free at last” (a poor choice) then turned up the somewhat affable spokesdude a notch.
Free ads didn’t mean free PICTUREs like Craigslist and i got tired of marking what I really saw to be spam or feeling like it just because I had no pictures. The main station website is good for weather and a few stories better covered by the Idago Statesman OR were all over on AP supplied sites and didn’t care to log in. They added contests that weren’t available to almost 1/2 their audience (Oregonians can see their signal rebroadcast out to Burns or Baker City) and those people WOULD TRAVEL on 5 dollar diesel to see George Strait etc if offered! You can vertically stack to China and lose your core values and identity.
Or you can stick to your guns and be the best and make sure all those brands circle around the base site and are supported.corredtly. You can’t be everything to everybody. It won’t grow a market share or at least not easily.
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