Rate pressure, new technologies, lower barriers to entry and changing demographics are all making it easier for other media companies and dot-coms to steadily increase their market share in this segment, which just a few years ago was owned outright by the newspaper industry. The other study, for the World Association of Newspapers, will be released at the World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum in Hong Kong this month. For the foreseeable future, print classified will remain a mainstay of the newspapers business and should not be neglected as management shifts attention to the Internet, WAN said in its preview. The research covered newspapers in 10 countries, all of them selling classifieds on the Internet. These experiences contradict some predictions that newspapers would have to kiss their classifieds goodbye, Balding said.
Newspapers are optimistic about the future of Web and print classifieds.
They believe the combination clearly produces added value for customers. The WAN classifieds study will be included in the group s annual Innovations in Newspapers report. The AIM Group has just released a free report about newspaper online archive sales, including several steps newspapers can take to tap the untapped value of their text and photo archives. Peter M. Zollman is founding principal of Advanced Interactive Media Group L.L.C., a consulting group that works with newspapers and other media companies to develop profitable interactive services.