Despite stiff online competition, the Internet is being increasingly seen by many as the saviour of newspapers’ classified advertising business. Advertisers will soon want more from an advertisement than the few lines of text that a Google spot can give. And, there is evidence that newspapers can be competitive players in the online classifieds game, says a new report by a leading newspaper marketing organisation.
The Guardian, for instance, sees the classified advertising in its print edition declining about 9 per cent a year, while classified advertising on its website is expanding by about 50 per cent a year. While online classifieds are starting from a much weaker position, the shift is stark, says Mining Gold: How to Make the Internet Pay Off For Newspapers, published recently by the International Newspaper Marketing Associaiton (INMA).
Newspapers are now competing not only with the large job search websites, but a number of niche sites — serving areas such as engineering or publishing — that have sprung up in recent years. Over the past decade, newspapers have gone from the only recruitment media in town to one of dozens. Yet newspapers are still in the game. The INMA study quotes a Borrell report which points out that 48 per cent of newspapers’ online revenues come from recruitment advertising.
The INMA document looks at a number of case studies.
Florida’s Palm Beach Post enhanced its classified advertisement offering to better appeal to sellers. The enhancement allowed customers to add eight photographs and 800 words of extra description to their online advertisements. They could can also make changes to advertisements at any of the Palm Beach Post’s area kiosks, and they can receive their offers via e-mail. The newspaper’s web classifieds also allowed buyers to place direct calls to classified and print advertisers while online. Sellers, in turn, receive feedback from buyers and can see how many people are viewing their advertising.
The enhanced classifieds found instant appeal among consumers. In January 2006, roughly 8,400 orders were placed for these advertisement enhancements. Two thousand shoppers used The Post’s new telephone services. Customers are now taking advantage of the new features. Sellers are writing out long descriptions of homes for sale and listing detailed inventories of garage sales. Many listings have six more photographs. Most of these advertisements are being sold in real estate with the next two most popular categories being automobiles and pets.
The Miami Herald’s reverse-publishing partnership US Condo Exchange gave the newspaper’s print advertisers a cost-effective solution for targeted online advertising. The newspaper’s condominium for-sale and for-rent classified listings are now reverse published on miamiherald.uscondex.com, a website powered by US Condo Exchange.
The newspapers’ listings are published on real estate websites around the world, delivering advertising to 15 million viewers per month. Partnering with the company has allowed the newspaper to reach an international audience with its classified advertising and deliver customers’ needs without the cost of an international advertising campaign.
The News International-owned Sun newspaper in the UK launched an expansion of its website. The free classified advertising website wass intended to protect the newspaper from competitors in this sector from outside the newspaper industry, like craigslist. Sun Local, launched in June 2006, offers millions of listings, as it links users to advertisements on other websites as well. The site also lets users post free advertisements of their own and send e-mail alerts.
News International has described the Sun as an “enabler,” connecting users throughout the day through print, online, and their mobile devices. “We see the Sun as three incarnations of one brand: best of the Sun, the newspaper; more Sun, online; and instant Sun, on mobile,” News International Chairman Les Hinton said in June 2006. “But one thing remains without doubt. If you add together the sales of the printed version of the paper and the online usage, we call them ‘Sun sessions,’ the Sun reaches about as many eyeballs as do some of our most popular TV programmes.”
The INMA study breaks down Internet trends threatening the traditional newspaper publishing model and how online advertising is evolving. What has value and what doesn’t have value in the online arena are becoming increasingly apparent for newspaper companies. The report brings together the emerging business models, pricing schemes, and thought processes behind these revenue generators.
The report is punctuated by case studies of how newspaper companies are creating new:
- Subscription models for online content;
- Profit centres around emerging online communities;
- Online classified advertising sales and revenue models;
- Revenue streams for emerging internet technologies such as blogs, podcasts, RSS, and instant messaging.
“One read through this report, and you will understand the amazing possibilities for newspapers,” said Earl J Wilkinson, INMA Executive Director. “Newspapers are experimenting with ways to carve up their content universe and monetise that universe, leverage eyeballs for advertisers, and new pricing models. Newspapers are finding new ways to make money from emerging technologies. It truly is a wild time for newspapers in cyberspace.”
