Get Married Becomes the Latest Casualty; Who Will Be Next?

By Paul Pannone

The announcement that Get Married will be shutting their doors comes after months of eWedNewz coverage that interviewed dozens of ex-employees and sources close to the story. eWedNewz investigated reports that varied from mismanagement to sexual improprieties at Get Married, looking for newzworthy reading. It became clear very early in the investigation– the Get Married business model was unsustainable.

Discussions in the Wedding Water Cooler talked about some of the strong points and innovation originally shown at Get Married.

“I thought that Get Married was conceptually brilliant. A media mix that includes print, TV,  and the internet could have been and should have been unbeatable.  While I wasn’t acquainted with Stacie, I was told by people who I respect that she was a great choice for publisher.

There were aspects of the business plan that didn’t make sense to me — like a launch that offered controlled and not paid circulation. However, I certainly don’t know everything.  Well; it’s too late now,” said Jim Duhe.

Like other Wedding Water Coolies Duhe expressed his concern for the people losing jobs because of the failure.

“It’s not a good day when any company folds.  There are a lot of good people involved in producing Get Married.  I don’t know where they will find jobs in this economy during the holiday season.  I truly feel sorry for them,” he said.

Wedding analyst, Christine Boulton agreed with Duhe saying;

“I too thought the concept brilliant in the start. Sadly they had two hits, in my opinion: First the TV part collapsed or rather never got the right network support. Second the whole thing with Taylor. How can you be honest when you are
owned by a major competitor to the people you want to sell advertising to?”

The signs of eventual failure were clear from the start at Get Married. Questions and coverage that pre-date eWedNewz with a “Z” shook the management, causing them to reach out to the parent company of the “S” format, The Wedding Report. Discussions surrounding a possible collaboration that would have directed traffic for surveys to the TWR consumer website fell through when they suggested this reporter should “ease up” on our investigation. But the investigation continued and uncovered the paltry traffic at the Get Married website mirrors other websites used by TWR for data surveys.

In the ongoing eWedNewz investigation Anita Brady reached out to us after Get Married dumped Stacie Francombe in 2009. The management at Get Married avoided hard-hitting questions by eWN  favoring an interview with wedding blogger, Andy Ebon. Ebon’s ties with Get Married and chummy affiliation with many wedding resources resulted in an easy interview taking everything told to him as Gospel. Meanwhile in the eWedNewz investigation repeated requests for balancing statements from CEO, Anita Brady, were ignored. But sources near the story provided exclusive information to this newz source throughout the coverage– regardless.

On Face Book and in private communications readers are asking who will be the next casualty, now that Get Married is gone.

“So who’s next or does this solidify the others, i.e. WeddingWire and The Knot,” asked Anthony Commisso. Commisso posted how the news of the Get Married failure is hitting the local, Albany, NY market. “There are wedding places/advertisers up here that have been posting the news and replied that you have been predicting it for months,” according to Commisso.

The Wedding business is full of Fairy Dust and Hucksters selling products and ideas that no longer work. Some never worked.

eWedNewz continues to watch struggling wedding websites, marketing, advertising, data companies– flooded with Fairy Dust selling personalities and seminars that claim will double your business. To date we’ve not found one that is worthy of mention– much less support with your hard-earned dollars.

AeWedNewz continues our coverage of this story.  As always we welcome you thoughts. Please post them here or continue contacting us privately at 516-312-0090 or Paul@ewednewz.com

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