• by Sara Guaglione , February 2, 2018

New Media Investment Group Inc. has acquired a 20% equity stake in TapOnIt, a text-based platform that delivers offers from local businesses to users who opt in to get the deals to their phones.

The investment will expand TapOnIt as an available product offered to advertisers for New Media’s publications across its 540 markets.

Beginning this quarter, TapOnIt will start rolling out the platform to select New Media markets.

“We believe [New Media's] investment in and commitment to the TapOnIt Reseller Network will rapidly accelerate our expansion to additional markets and allow us to bring special offers to consumers and drive traffic, revenue and awareness for businesses,” stated founder and CEO Katie Wilson.

TapOnIt, which was launched in April 2015 in Quad Cities, Iowa, has over 70,000 registered users. It currently operates in three other local markets: Des Moines, Iowa City and Cedar Rapids.

New Media CEO Michael E. Reed stated: “There is the potential for great revenue upside for both companies as TapOnIt is sold into New Media’s footprint.” He cited TapOnIt's proprietary technology that leads to immediate and trackable results for local businesses.

TapOnIt sends up to three image-based text messages per week to its users, featuring three local offers per message.

The texts have a 98% open-rate, according to the company. Businesses that partner with TapOnIt to send offers to its users also get to keep 100% of the revenue generated by users.

There is no charge to subscribers and businesses only pay advertising charges for the number of subscribers reached, according to The Dispatch-Argus.

“We experience less than a 2% monthly churn rate compared to 70% churn for apps in their first 90 days,” Wilson stated. “And our users redeem the offers they receive at rates of up to 11%.”

New Media is one of the largest publishers of local print and online media in the U.S. The company publishes more than 600 publications in 36 states and owns GateHouse Media Inc.