New Application To Watch
ELECTRONIC DISCOUNT COUPONS

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., which controls half of the newspaper coupon market in the U.S., is investing in technology to make discount coupons available online and on digitized cards. News Corp. executive Lachlan Murdoch says that the company’s traditional coupon business is "solid, has grown from year to year, but it’s threatened by new media. This push signifies that News Corp. is getting serious about new media." In the new system, discount information is downloaded onto a smart card (either in a shopping aisle or over the Internet to the retailer’s preregistered customer account). (Wall Street Journal 20 Jul 99)