Wanderful Media Acquires Mobile Newspaper Shopping Ads Platform iCircular From The AP

Wanderful Media, which aims to digitize circulars (the printed fliers you find in your mailbox full of the latest deals and coupons), has acquired iCircular from The Associated Press.

Originally launched by the AP, iCircular puts coupons, ads and offers into the mobile sites of newspapers on phones and tablets. The technology is available as an HTML5 embed for apps and sites on iOS. The pilot included 180 publications and 21 nationwide retailers.

Similarly, Wanderful wants to put circulars on your mobile device as well. The company’s first product, Find n Save, powers the deals/shopping sections of newspaper websites in more than 250 markets, including the Sacramento Bee and the San Francisco Chronicle. Through these sites, consumers can browse, save, and print local retailers’ coupons, which have been converted from print to digital. (Wanderful acquired a print-to-digital conversion company called Travidia last year, and it operates a conversion center in Chico, Calif.)

The idea behind the iCircular acquisition is to broaden Wanderful’s products for mobile devices and tablets. While the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, Wanderful says the acquisition was less than eight figures.

Wanderful, which is backed by the newspaper publishing industry including Cox Media Group, The E.W. Scripps Company, Gannett Co., Hearst Corporation, MediaNews Group, The McClatchy Company, and The Washington Post Co; already owns and operates Find n Save sites covering 47 of the 50 top designated market areas.

The iCircular pilot was launched by AP to bridge the digital gap by delivering the traditional weekly circular
on mobile devices within trusted local news sources’ applications and mobile websites.