Rogers's closure of Sweetspot.ca sends "terrible message", says its founder

Rogers Publishing didn't seem to know what to do with the various digital properties it acquired, according to the founder of Sweetspot.ca, Joanna Track. In a very unusual move, she has written a highly critical article in the Globe and Mail about the closure of Sweetspot and 7 other of Rogers's sites last week. She describes the  "big fail" as not integrating the properties into the larger company's ecosystem.

"Rogers had gone blazing into the market acquiring digital properties, but there seemed to be no thought or foresight about how to integrate them into its (behemoth) system. It would be an understatement to say that the company’s digital strategy has not performed well. It doesn’t appear to have had a digital strategy."

She was critical of the treatment of the people working for the site, saying the company "started pulling them out like Jenga pieces and leveraging their skills to grow other properties."

Track saw her management contract cease late in 2010 after Rogers -- which had originally taken a minority stake -- took full ownership. She went on last year to create an online fashion and beauty site called Dealuxe. 

"Clearly I’m not objective, but I think Rogers has sent a terrible message to Canadians about big companies, about their future direction – instead of evolving with the times they are going back to the same old stuff they’ve been doing forever – and to entrepreneurs across the country.