View From the Phlipside Radio - Two in Trouble?

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.

Over the last couple years we’ve charted the predicted declines of a variety of media types and individual nameplates.  Some, like the print media in various forms, keep hearing their obituaries but never quite seem to fade away.

So I thought it might be interesting to take a look ahead and see who may be next up on that list.  I was rather surprised at the two names that suggested themselves.  The first is Google owned Blogger and the other was the hot ticket just a year ago, Groupon.

Let’s take age before beauty.  Once upon a time Blogger was the name in online journalling, otherwise known as blogging.  A decade back this was the brain child of Evan Williams the guy who would go on to co-found Twitter.  In 2003 Google stepped up and bought the store.  It would seem like the perfect scenario.  Google is everywhere and doing lots of things very well (not everything mind you but their batting average is pretty good).  Unfortunately they haven’t spent much time with Blogger since then and it has taken a huge slide.  Today WordPress represents almost 55% of the blogging world while Blogger has dropped to about 3%.  A new dashboard has been added but this is one Blogger, well blogger, that has tried it and turned it off.  It is NOT an improvement.

Elsewhere we have Groupon, the hot new online service from 2008 where you can get essentially online coupon deals from local sponsors.  The idea took off like fireworks at Labor Day Fest.  It’s only been three years but Groupon is gearing up for an IPO (that’s Initial Public Offering for those of you who don’t speak Finance.  It means they’re going to sell stock.).  So things must be going really well, right?  Well maybe not.  Traffic at the website has fallen off 50%, a highly touted top manager quit after only 2 months on the job and it appears that costs are out stripping profits by a significant margin.  It’s certainly possible to get rich quick in this new digital world but it’s also possible to go broke fast too.

So which one outlasts the other?  My bet is that Google’s deep pockets keep Blogger afloat longer than Groupon.  Just a hunch although Google has shown no compunction with pulling the plug.  But consider this piece of wisdom I just ran across - it’s easier to turn water into wine than it is turn vinegar back into wine.  The future may be skunked for both these companies.

Call that the View From the Phlipside