March 2015 | Volume 2, Issue 7
Beach Scene BS
Your News & Entertainment Source, Serving the Beaches of Pinellas County Clearwater Beach hotel sets record
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Can an IRB resident go head-to-head with Groupon, Craigslist and Angieslist?
Madeira Beach’s Grunt Hunt
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He says he can.
LuLu’s Oyster Bar: Fresh & Fabulous
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By Deborah Altman
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It's not arrogance, it's confidence," says Indian Rocks Beach resident, Adam McLean, about his plan to take on three Internet giants: Groupon, Craigslist and Angieslist. To that end, McLean has launched three new websites: Codyslist.com, a classified website; McPons.com, a coupon website; and AdamJofi.com, a referral website. "The first step is believing it can be
done. I've always said failure is never an option. Even if you have to shut down a business, as long as you have learned from the experience, it'll help you with the long term goal of achieving success," said McLean. His classified website, Codyslist.com, is named after his 13-year-old son, Cody. It was actually created a few years ago, when McLean's newspapers, along with thousands of others, began losing classified revenue to Craigslist.org. McLean, who owns two community
newspapers, knew he had to make a change. "Daily newspapers were folding, partly due to the economy, but they were equally impacted by Craigslist," said McLean. "It was free, why wouldn't someone place their ad on Craigslist instead of having to pay to have it in the local paper? I understood that but it didn't mean I had to like it." McLean, who recently turned down an offer to sell his newspapers to the Tampa Media Group, owner of the Tampa Tribune, still believes in print
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