The Modern Journalist

Weird Tales About Internet Coupons

July 17th, 2008 | by Brad King |

I was trolling through my inbox today looking for something interesting to write about when I came across this press release: Internet Coupon Usage Up 83% in American Households.

Normally I would have blown right past this but I’ve been thinking about my own shopping habits recently because I’ve loaded all my finances into Quicken. (Side note: apparently I spent a lot of money on ridiculous stuff). One thing I have noticed: I have my Borders coupons sent to my mobile phone, and I use those coupons to purchase books.

My premise with the book project, though, is that newspapers need to fundamentally alter how they view themselves. And that means overhauling the idea that they tell stories and instead view themselves as conduits for data.

What better way to do that then create a customizable online coupon section that people can use to print out — and organize — all of their online coupons.

My mother is notorious for making lists. She has — since my earliest recollections — had lists everywhere, including one on the side of the fridge with all the food they buy. When she’s out of something, she makes a check. Enough checks — its’ time to go to the store.

Wouldn’t it be amazing for her if she could go to the Cincinnati Enquirer (whenever they fix the abysmal interface that Gannett launched without having done one piece of usability testing — not focus groups Gannett, usability testing) and use a directory or database to aggregate all of the products she wants, the online store coupons and print them out?

Answer: yes.

This would likely involve the paper building some technology — or working with the big supermarkets in the area — to create a system for doing that. The business model wouldn’t be hard to build either. This is a service that would take off with the right type of thought.

It’s not the end all beat all of everything, but it’s another step in the evolution of the paper — offering something locally that a big player is going to have a difficult time doing.

Post your thoughts here — or join our conversation in the NING social networking group. That discussion is here.