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Craigslist replaced paper's classified ads. Pretty much every website is using online ads. I gotta wonder who is doing the coupons that a fair number of people use the paper to get?


Coupons are a fascinating business, with a lot of middlemen taking cuts. From the agency that creates the advertising campaign (and possibly books the media) to the media platforms that display the coupons (whether inserts in physical papers, direct mail flyers, digital coupons via coupons.com/Quotient and retailer sites and emails, etc). Plus the clearinghouses that process the physical coupons for retailers, and the processors that handle the financial aspect of cutting a check from the manufacturer to the clearinghouse and onto the retailer for the redeemed coupons.

There are a few big names in each of those sections; but "doing the coupons" is an entire process that sets off a chain of necessary suppliers, rather than just a single name like Google.




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