Gift certificate exchange

NEW YORK -- Nation's Restaurant News has entered into a strategic marketing agreement with Restaurant.com, a company that sells discounted gift certificates to consumers and provides Internet marketing assistance to the restaurateurs who accept those certificates.

Alan Gould, NRN publisher, said the New York-based publication's partnership will permit 4-year-old Restaurant.com to promote its gift certificate business in the NRN-Online Weekly Newsletter and through Internet hyperlinks from www.nrn.com. Gould added that the agreement means NRN can "offer its readers a unique opportunity to drive consumer traffic into their restaurants during this challenging economic time."

"We are very pleased to start this exciting new partnership with a quality professional organization such as Nation's Restaurant News," said Restaurant.com chief operating officer Scott Lutwak. "We feel we can offer great value to its readers."

Under its business model, Restaurant.com provides clients' restaurants with a Web site and other promotional material at no out-of-pocket cost to the operators. Each restaurant is promoted in marketing campaigns that Restaurant.com said reach millions of potential customers. The company explained that it uses not only its own Web site for such promotions but also the sites of such marketing partners as eBay.com, MSN.com, Yahoo.com and Orbitz.com.

In exchange for Restaurant.com's services, restaurateurs agree to honor a specified number of gift certificates sold at the online vendor's Web site or through auctions conducted in partnership with eBay. Consumers buying Restaurant.com gift certificates typically pay up to 50 percent less than the face value of the certificate.

Founded in 1967, NRN has nearly 80,000 paid subscribers and more than 300,000 total readers per week. Not only is NRN the only paid-circulation business publication in foodservice, but also it is the only weekly in the industry. NRN also offers numerous online, event and custom-marketing services.

Restaurant.com sources said there now are more than 3,000 restaurants involved in the company's gift certificate program. Restaurant.com, since its inception, has distributed "hundreds of thousands" of gift certificates, they said.