Comments on: Why don’t newspapers make Craigslist obsolete?

By: Newspaper Savin’ part II « Gerson in Abu Dhabi

Newspaper Savin’ part II « Gerson in Abu Dhabi — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 10:27:54 +0000

[...] ADD2: I’m not the only one asking this question. Link. [...]

By: In which I return and go linkblogging « Korr Values

In which I return and go linkblogging « Korr Values — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 03:58:47 +0000

[...] previous posts I’ve wondered why newspapers don’t try to take on Craigslist’s free [...]

By: Josh Korr

Josh Korr — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:30:54 +0000

Thanks!

That makes sense. Though I wonder if there isn’t then enough time to devise a system that could compete on a larger scale.

Even if, say McClatchy or Gannett’s far-flung networks of papers aren’t big enough to make it worthwhile individually, seems like chains might think about teaming up to devise a next-gen classifieds system or something. Sharing revenue would be better than losing it entirely.

At the very least, I don’t know why individual papers or chains haven’t tried to better target ads on classifieds pages and differentiate those ads from the ones on the rest of the Web site.

By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 21:03:07 +0000

Classifieds still represent a significant chunk of most newspapers’ revenue, particularly recruitment ads ((NYT and USA Today are in a different boat).

CPC ads would have to have the national scale of a craigslist or a kajiji to make economic sense, and the newspaper industry is too federated to produce such a beast. Nobody wants to pull the plug on classifieds’ life-support just yet – it’s a key pillar holding back rapid and substantial change in the industry. That rapid, substantial change might not be pretty.

BTW, great series on the newsroom stuff earlier.