Agate Attack
by David M. Cole
With classified advertising in daily newspapers up more than 11 percent in 1997 (following a similar number in 1996), newspaper executives should be sanguine about the world of agate ads, right?
Wrong.
Classified advertising is on the brink of massive change, and newspaper executives need to be prepared to use technology to keep advertisers thinking about newspapers when they think classifieds.
The World Wide Web is radically altering the worlds of automotive sales, real-estate sales and employment. Non-newspaper companies have moved aggressively into each of these online markets. If newspapers don't present attractive solutions combining print and online, they will lose those ad dollars to these new competitors.
Good examples in each area were discussed at the Newspaper Association of America's Annual Convention, held April 19-22 in Dallas (the sessions ran 7 a.m.-9 a.m. on Tuesday, April 21; even if you were there, you might have missed them).
Real-estate advertising is always a cornerstone of classifieds at newspapers in the Sun Belt, and The San Diego Union-Tribune is no different. Unfortunately for the paper, new competitors have eroded its real-estate base.
Dexter LaPierre, The Union-Tribune's classified-advertising manager, told the early-morning session that the paper is "regaining market share" with its Homebuying Net, a package of products including a monthly zoned tabloid, a monthly catalog distributed to food chains and an online system with more than 3,000 paid listings and photos.
Homebuying Net is a joint effort by the paper, the National Association of Realtors and the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) provider, meaning that Realtors can enter ads in the paper or onto Homebuying Net using their MLS terminal, said LaPierre. "This has allowed us to develop a closer partnership with the real-estate industry."
In addition to home listings, Homebuying Net also provides profiles of more than 300 agents, for which the agents pay a fee to the paper. "These profiles allow the agents and brokers to more fully market their listings," said LaPierre.
A customer can read about a home in either the zoned tabloid (broken down into six geographic areas), the catalog or the newspaper. Upon entering the Web site, the customer merely enters the MLS number and gets expanded information about the property, including room dimensions and features. Alternately, a customer can pick a real-estate agent and then wander through his or her listings.
LaPierre says the program has been successful and profitable, and new features slated for the Web site will include online mortgage and insurance purchasing.
At The Kansas City (Mo.) Star, the concern was employment advertising. Though things were going well, there was a suspicion they could be better. "When help-wanted advertising is moving, every classified manager is a genius," quipped Tim Kelley, the paper's classified-advertising manager.
Research and anecdotal evidence indicated to Star executives that both advertisers and readers were interested in career information--it's "eagerly sought by readers," Kelley said.
In addition to beefing up the print component of recruitment (the paper created stand-alone career sections that contain not only help-wanted advertising but career information as well), the paper started KCJobHunter, which carries the job listings from the newspaper.
But much more beneficial to advertisers, said Kelley, was a database of résumés, providing advertisers with the ability to prescreen applicants and speed up the recruitment process. "It's a great time-saver," said Kelley.
Better yet, The Star has found that the résumé service isn't price sensitive. "We've raised prices three times in the last year and have hit no resistance," he said.
The issue for the executives of The Times Union in Albany, N.Y., wasn't just getting automotive advertising--the issue was coming up with a method for bringing auto dealers closer to the newspaper (and making them less inclined to advertise in other media).
The solution was what the paper came to call Capital Cars--a Web site that lists all the used cars for sale in the greater Albany area. Based on Autobase, a product co-developed by the paper and Associated Information Systems Inc. of Auburn, Calif., Capital Cars not only puts descriptions and photos of automobiles on the paper's Web site, it also manages the inventory for the auto dealers.
The paper, which partnered with the local auto dealers association for Capital Cars, now has a relationship that is "hardwired and datacentric," said David P. White, the paper's advertising director.
The system cuts down work for both the paper and the dealer: White said that it once took the paper and the dealer between five and 10 hours to create a full-page automotive ad. Using Autobase, it takes about two hours from start to finish. In addition, the database can produce a variety of ads--all automatically.
With classifieds such a critical part of a newspaper's revenue stream, only the newspapers that embrace technology--as these three have--will thrive in the next century.
Cole is a San Francisco-based newspaper consultant and editor of The Cole Papers, a monthly newsletter on technology, journalism and publishing. E-mail, dmc@colegroup.com; phone, (650) 994-2100; fax, (650) 994-2108. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily TechNews or NAA.