In the nine weeks our Find It online classified offering to newsagents the Australian Newsagents’ Federation has remained silent. Their silence has not stopped newsagents signing on to represent Find In their communities – we now have more than 1,000 newsagents signed up, making Find It the fastest uptake of a commercial initiative by newsagents. The ANF yesterday started promoting what could only be considered a spoiler operation – Ozjobfindit. A smart person would know that promoting Ozjobfindit to newsagents would confuse with the Find It business I have been promoting. Hmmm.
There are some problems with the ANF promoted business: The name the ANF promote in their announcement, Ozjobfindit Pty Limited, is not registered with ASIC; the website, www.ozjobfindit.com, would not pass registration in Australia because of its similarity to our domain name – www.findit.com.au.
The ANF has told newsagents that Ozjobfindit is “a fully owned subsidiary of the Barrington Group of Companiesâ€. The Barrington website does not provide AC N or ABN details to research. A Google search took us to the National Training Information Service and lists an ACN which is not a valid number.
I originally offered the ANF all intellectual property of Find It back in mid 2004, long before any launch to newsagents. The offer was for all IP at no cost – a gift to the industry. The ANF did not act on the offer and in early 2005 I withdrew and further developed the business myself. The ANF could have owned a unique online classified website for newsagents and created what we are seeking to create today.
For newsagents, Find It is a traffic and revenue stream as customers will visit to pay for and even place ads. We treat newsagents as stakeholders by providing profit share and trail commission for customers they win. Ads by newsagents for their business and family can be posted at Find It at no cost.
It is disappointing that the ANF, of which I am a member through my newsXpress Forest Hill business, has been, at best sloppy, or at worst deliberately destructive in an effort to harm my Find It business.