Gannett acquires all of shoplocal

Gannett has acquired all of ShopLocal, the online shopping handbill provider antecedently owned by a triumvirate of paper publishers. Gannett, which also owns PointRoll, bought out the ownership stakes of McClatchy and Tribune in offprint transactions.

With the move, ShopLocal will work more closely with PointRoll, a rich media supplier acquired by Gannett in 2005, to enhance products like PointRoll's PaperBoy online circular ad formatting. "It's an chance for us at PointRoll, and more significantly at Gannett," said Chris Saridakis, SVP and chief digital officer at Gannett. "It creates value for retail clients."

Saridakis said ShopLocal partners include 29 of the 30 top retail merchant in the handbill space, including Target, Lowes, CVS, and Wallgreens. Uptake of ShopLocal's database, and the PaperBoy unit, "is one of the ground we wanted the 100 percentage acquisition," Saridakis said.

The dealing was probably motivated in part by financial challenges faced by Gannett's rivals, according to Peter Krasilovsky, VP and programme director of marketplaces at the Kelsey Group.

"The biggest thing likely is that Tribune and McClatchy are look for money, and Gannett was in the place to buy them out," he said.

Krasilovsky first posted about the prospective acquisition prior to functionary word from Gannett or other political party on the Kelsey Group's blog.

Prior to the acquisition, Tribune owned 42.5 percentage and McClatchy owned 15 percentage of ShopLocal. Gannett disclosed it paid Tribune $22.3 million, and McClatchy expects to earn $13.5 1000000 in the deal, after taxes. ShopLocal was created in 2004 by CrossMedia Services, a company owned jointly by Gannet, Knight Ridder and Tribune at the time. McClatchy acquired KnightRidder in 2006. Gannett continues to work with both paper organizations on additional ventures such as CareerBuilder, Classified Ventures, and Topix.net.

Full ownership of ShopLocal, Krasilovsky speculates, could compliment Gannett's ownership of PointRoll, which it acquired in 2005. ShopLocal's localized show ads are served through PointRoll.

"PointRoll and ShopLocal are already working on joint products and sales," said Saridakis. "Retailers over the summer are already working on back-to-school and holiday, and the timing couldn't be better."