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In response – or retaliation – to the growth of free classifieds provider Craig-
slist and, to an unknown degree, the oncoming apocalypse that is Google Classifieds, print is striking back (or at least giving it a good ‘college try’).
According to a story in MediaPost, alternative chains New Times Media and Village Voice Media are expected to expand the availability of free classifieds via Backpage.com.
To generate revenue, at least one of their properties currently offers online advertisers more prominent
positioning for 50 cents – and, for an additional $15, it will also
place an ad in its print edition.
Moves like this clearly exemplify the butt-kicking Craigslist and other online offerings are putting on print.
The strategy to go free is a big gamble. Just like Communist countries of old, once you give freedom from whence there was none, it’s hard to go back. Probably impossible.
However, print offerings may not have any choice at this point but to go free and hope that upgrades do the trick. But even at a high level of success, replacing past revenue levels will be near impossible. There will be loss.
As one quote from the story sums up,
"The model is," said Townsend, "you create a platform so private
parties can create free ads, but around that there will be opportunity
for upselling. Free is nice, but it quickly becomes a very noisy place,
so advertisers will pay to get noticed."
Yes, free is nice.
Speaking of free … as an alternative, I think it would be interesting to see local newspapers invest in and offer free Wi-Fi to their immediate market in return for subscribing to the weekly newspaper. Such a strategy would certainly get me to open my wallet … at least until Google offered it.
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November 15th, 2005 at 6:34 pm
Interesting, that newspapers still think that by ‘chucking in’ the online it will somehow make there print offering more attractive. Here in Australia Fairfax Publications http://www.mycareer.com.au tried it and failed, News LTD http://www.careerone.com.au are trying it and are failing. The only Job Board that is doing well here is the independent player http://www.seek.com.au that started the business for the right reasons and are able to build value around there product offering as an online job board, not because they are protecting something else.
Fairfax then saw what Craig’s List was a threat to the print in the US and heard they were heading down under, they secretly produced http://www.cracker.com.au as a defensive strategy, but kept the fact that Fairfax produced it as a secret. Print is still declining!!