• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 18, 2019

News Corp. this morning announced it is putting News America Marketing -- one of the biggest distributors of FSIs, coupons and other forms of below-the-line marketing -- on the block.

In a statement, News Corp. said it has retained Allen & Co. as its financial advisor to pursue “strategic options” for NAM that would help “simplify the structure of the company.”

“Candidly, the NAM business has been transformed from one based on newspaper inserts to one of the leading in-store marketing companies in the US, with a growing digital component and an expanding array of tech partners,” News Corp. Chief Executive Robert Thomson stated, adding: “With its extensive access to first-party shopper data, close relationships with consumer goods companies and placements in thousands of retail stores, NAM can track the shopper journey between customers and some of the biggest brands and largest retailers.”

The company noted that NAM has a proprietary database of millions of shoppers, including extensive purchase data, enabling both retailers and brand marketers to “target the right people in the right place at the right time.”

NAM’s in-store marketing footprint currently reaches 60,000 retail locations in the U.S. and Canada with a circulation of more than 60 million through nearly 2,000 publications.

Once reliant on printed FSIs -- or free-standing inserts distributed via printed newspaper and supplements -- the company said NAM now is largely a “digital solution,” enabling shoppers to access consumer promotions, discounts and other offers via mobile cash-back apps, retailer load-to-card programs and print-at-home couponing.