It looks like this is going to become an ongoing theme of concern for newspapers. Coupon sites like Groupon continue to grow at astounding rates, offering advertisers another option and, presumably, depleting  marketing budgets off the businesses who use them. The secret to their success - advertisers pay for results, not impressions. Mediabids' per inquiry program (www.mediabids.com) has had success in measuring the results produced by publications and  paying publications based on measured calls. Will daily newspapers see the light and begin to offer a program that competes with Groupon and the other coupon/group buying sites? I guess we have to wait and see but if classifieds (Craigslist,), real estate (realtor.com) and employment (Monster.com) are any indication, I wouldn't bet on it.  Full story here.

Consumers Seek Online Coupons in November

Coupon sites ranked as the top gaining US web category for November 2010, according to [pdf] new comScore MediaMatrix data. A record 44 million Americans visited a coupon site during month, up 40% from October 2010. Groupon ranked as the number coupon site with 10 million unique visitors (up 54%), followed by CouponCabin.com with 8.8 million visitors, representing a 400% increase from the prior month. Coupons, Inc. came in third with 6.4 million, while BlackFriday.info saw 5.4 million, up nearly 1,000% month-over-month. RetailMeNot.com rounded out the top five coupon sites with 5 million visitors, up 20%.