A Newspaper That's Figured Out How To Compete With Craigslist?
from the slowly-but-surely dept
While there are still some newspapers who are oblivious to the Craigslist threat, it's clear that some are finally figuring out that they need to compete. It was getting a bit tiresome to hear about newspapers claiming how they were "losing business" to Craigslist. They weren't losing business, they were failing to keep it themselves by being unwilling to change with the market and compete. However, it appears some are starting to figure it out. The San Diego Union-Tribune is reporting early success in their attempt to compete with Craigslist. Realizing that something needed to be offered for free, they're allowing classified ads for free in a variety of categories if the product is less than $5,000. They're also letting those ads show up both online and in the print edition -- an area where they have an advantage over Craigslist. They are still charging for extras (longer runs, photos, better placement, etc.), and have found that they're getting a lot more usage out of the classifieds. What they don't say is what it's meant in terms of revenue. However, if they had continued on the path of ignoring Craigslist, you can pretty much guarantee that revenue and usage would be decreasing.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
No Subject Given
I turned off my cell phone, turned it back on at 8 AM, and sold it to the person that called at 8:01. I had about 20 voice mails from people that called prior to 8 AM.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
how newspaper companies can beat craigslist
nyc.chaimex.com Thank You Mr H Khalid
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
They also have an insert to this section full of paid advertisments from all the local computer stores, so its a huge cataloge thats nice to read every saturday morning. It even got so popular they started adding articles to the IT section.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anything is better than craigslist
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
GetVendors.com approach
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
News and Review
http://www.newsreview.com/gyrobase/Entry
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Why everyone flocked to the internet with their advertisements.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]