Many newspapers reprinted their classifieds online, but they focused on using the Net to present the news. Newspapers hired editors and technical people for their new media staffs, and they gave away most or all of their content, hoping to somehow, someday, figure out a way to make money from it all. Newspapers are particularly vulnerable to an attack on their job ads, which made up approximately 43 percent of the classifieds market in 1999. Such forecasts cause eyes to roll among newspaper people. But, he says, newspaper companies would have had to screw up far worse than they have to actually lose their ownership of the classifieds market.
Sober numbers suggest that online ads are holding back growth in print classifieds.
While it may have taken awhile, newspapers have finally gotten the message. That means recognizing where the growth is-local news, local sports, local entertainment, and classifieds. Many papers apparently think they will do so by banding together. That outfit takes classifieds from 134 newspaper markets representing between 20 million and 25 million readers.