Opened my local twice a week edition newspaper yesterday and began reading. As usual when I came to the back of the publication and found the classifieds I was disappointed. Disappointed since there were so few to read, virtually no employment ads and no general customer sales ads such as autos, furniture, and appliances. Classified has gone a long way backward since about 2003. I date it at 2003 because that just happens to be the year I left general circulation newspaper advertising management. At the time I was the advertising manager at the local newspaper and it was not unusual for the classified section to have 6 to 8 pages of ads each issue. Most of the backsliding since 2003 has nothing to do with my departure to be sure since if one would go back to say 1998 we were publishing 10 to 12 pages of classifieds each issue so classified was losing market share before I left the business.
Frankly we could take this loss of market share back to somewhere around the mid 1980's when newspapers decided to really start raises prices on classified ads and especially local consumer classifieds such as cars and used refrigerators for sale. There was a time in the late 1970's when my classified sales career began that we would run 20 plus pages of DAILY classifieds at a newspaper with less than 20000 circulation. Even then the idea of raising prices without accompanying increases in circulation or market penetration was excused since after all newspapers could not help it due to their suppliers were increasing their prices as well. This little argument is maybe sound but totally irrelevant when it comes to classified advertising. We forgot that when customers are unhappy they begin to look other options and when they found other options they left. Pricing yourself out of a market is plainly stupid.
Now stay with me here since many of you are going to get mad and say this guy knows nothing and want to leave after I tell you the main reasons for these errors in judgement that lead to classified virtually dying at newspapers. When newspapers began to place people who knew absolutely nothing about the basis of classified advertising as classified managers, when newspapers began to place in publisher positions those who had not come up from long years of working in the newspaper in other lower positions, and when newspapers got the let's do some diversity hiring to fill a position, that is when classified started dying. People who worked in classified understood the reasons people used the little lines of ads and understood why you would get autos and real estate and all the other businesses who placed display ads in the classified pages
The reasons were simple. The consumer liner ads that had someone's used auto, used refrigerator, used bicycle, Saturday's yard sale, and yes employment drew lots and lots of eyeballs. All those eyeballs wanted to see what was for sale since they might find a bargain or maybe find something they were looking to buy. They also drew people needing employment to check out job openings in classified. Many newspapers in the 1970's would price all those little liner ads at basically what it costs to have someone take them over the phone and place them in the paper, which was really really cheap since there were so many ads. Those same newspapers also allowed lots of ready for this, FREE ads in the same classifieds for really cheap products for sale say under $25. If you are of late newspaper management vintage I expect you will say why charge so little for these ads when you need to make a profit. Understand that newspaper management have been saying that for long enough to run yourselves right into bankruptcy in many cases. You have least thought it long enough to virtually destroy whatever classifieds you have left. So your thinking is WRONG.
Newspapers have no one but themselves to blame for the classified ad losses because of thinking as we are owed a profit or we have bills to pay. But then again most of the current newspaper management is ill equipped to do much more than think this way. Years ago newspapers used all those eyeballs drawn to classifieds to find bargains to sell large space and small space display ads to business customers who wanted a chance to sell their product to the people connected to those eyeballs. They even sold higher priced, much higher priced liner ads to these same customers making sure to readers just which liner ads were business ads and not just the local guy selling his items. All these ads made nice profits for newspapers not the liner classifieds that drew the readers and ultimately customers for the display ads.
The other part of this classified loss is the simple fact newspapers quit thinking local. They started thinking save money, thinking how to be more efficient, starting thinking to hell with the customer in many ways including editorial who were told they were immune from such thinking. So many times what you got was what was termed cross selling where customers who called their local newspaper ended up with their $50 refrigerator ad being run in a newspaper two counties away for the purpose of adding profits to the newspaper with extra runs in more publications. All of this is of course irrelevant to the guy selling the fridge since all they want is to connect with some who will buy their used item. Trust me a $35 classified ad is of no use to a guy selling a $50 item, little logic to wasting one's money when you would be better off donating the item to the Salvation Army. But the real killer of classifieds here is that no one is going to drive 100 miles to buy a used item for $50, especially from someone who might be selling them a pig in a poke. You see part of the wonder of classifieds in the 1970's was that either you or someone you knew had acquaintance with the person selling the used fridge and there was some trust in the purchase. No so anymore so many former classified line ad customer quit using the classifieds for price and being non local.
Newspaper management, thinking they understood the reasons for classified losses, blamed Craig's List and most notably the Internet for taking their customers. They are wrong and wrong. Craig's list even today can not localize the classified product. They try by taking in larger metro and geographical areas, but it still does not do work as well as former classifieds. Very few places in the Internet can localize either even though it looks like facebook forums are breaking out in areas where people can join a local used item sales page. There are some areas where localized webpages are up that target certain 30 mile radius areas with classifieds and such and they seem to be doing fairly well. But in the end newspaper management allowed this once vibrant and profitable market slip away from them by making poor decisions. Accepting the blame would go a long ways towards taking back some business.
Going forward the fences are high to getting back this classified markets for newspapers. First off fact is that it is much easier and CHEAPER to keep a market than try and GAIN a market. I know for a fact most of these inexperienced newspaper managers do not understand that most simple of business rules since many have never actually handled customers or markets. But there is a possible way to begin the slow climb back to a larger classified section but it will not be quick or easy.
Renewing the classified section is going back to the future. That is local local and local advertising. That is also FREE liner ads. Begin with letting your subscribers and locals know you are offering free ads for customers who sell used items, and want to place yard sales. Trust an old classified hand on this one that those yard sales are a huge eyeball draw to your product. Also if the person placing the ad is selling the items outside the true geographical area of your newspaper place the ads in a separate classification and yes charge a small fee for them, again local is the key here. If you have an online presence place the ads there for free as well. Built your classifieds and slowly regain some control of your market. Eventually there will come the point where you have enough eyeballs to sell to local businesses who see opportunity in those eyeballs. Can newspapers get back to where they once were, who knows, what I do know is this is the only way. If it fails you have lost little but stand the chance to gain some profits and most importantly regain some local footing for your product.
As to the Internet presence I still believe placing links to business customers and even links to PDF's that someone can open online will help gain some display style ads. If you have the eyeballs you can sell links to business customers who want those eyeballs. Make your website the go to local site for local news and breaking local news. Even arm yourself with the ability to place a late breaking news story and photo online quickly. Make sure you have a facebook page where you can link your website for local info and breaking stories.
While you are at it it you are still charging for weddings, engagements, obits, and such stop. These too are eyeballs drivers and newspapers sent them packing with making customers pay for them. Yes, make your news dept. take them with a smile and sincere thank you. No, your news dept. will not like it. But maybe explain to them that the news staff is there BECAUSE of the public and not the other way around. if they can not grasp that concept they need to be replaced. Newspapers need to think local and not state or national and that is the only way back.
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