Coupons Going Digital?

After reading a blog post written by Jeff Jarvis about the dying industry of print coupons, I began to think about what he say saying. Is there any relation between this and the rumored extinction of newspapers?

Jeff Jarvis believes so. He claims in his blog that when he was working as the Sunday editor at the New York Daily News that when they stopped providing coupons in their paper, circulation went up $100k. It turned out that people had been buying coupons more than the paper.

Jarvis isn't the only one recognizing the rising popularity of coupons, though. Coupons.com made $858 million last year on printouts of deals alone. Also, Americans redeemed $3.3 billion in coupons last year, a 27% increase since 2008.

What next then, you might ask? Well, like everything else in the media industry, coupons are going to have to make some changes.

Everything seems to be converting to digital, so why shouldn't coupons be the same way? Jarvis predicts coupon use going digital, even to the extent of our smart phones. "If I can check into my flight with the scan of my IPhone, shouldn't I be able to buy toilet paper with it?" Jarvis said.

If coupons begin to go digital, and online content has already begun to grow increasingly popular, this can only leave you wondering what lies in the future of newspapers everywhere.