RefreshClassifieds

One of the largest employment vertical, online partners to the print world has just announced it is cutting jobs in-house, to maintain revenue to cost ratios. The partner I am speaking of is Monster.com.

To me, this is fascinating news, as we have seen so many print publishers create advertising partnerships, with the likes of Monster, Workopolis, Career Builder, etc…. These relationships were built because the online entities, mentioned above, were supposed to be the leverage point that would allow print publishers to keep their Employer/Advertiser databases strong. Sales leaders at newspapers would create special packages, giving their customers placement in the newspaper and website, as well as provide a presence on the global network owned by their ‘well known’, online employment partner. A brilliant plan, provided you had the right sales force, to keep market penetration numbers up. Those who understood new media vantage points, recognized they were being the conduit for their clients to other media forms, as opposed to being left out of the clients purchasing strategy, completely. This downsizing announcement however, makes one think that some of the online only companies, print publishers have joined forces with, may not be much better off than they.

As Monster made clear that it will cut 15% (800 jobs) of its work force to keep investors happy, at the end of the day publishers already in bed with the elephant will need to be aware of the changes to staffing and how that may affect their business.

The challenge the reduction of staff brings to both Monster and their partnering publishers, is the question of service and reliability. Will something be lost in the shuffle? Keep in mind Monster has a relationship with approximately 59 newspapers, which means that there is a lot at stake here. Press releases indicate that the greatest reduction of staff will be here in North America, as it is here that the revenue growth has been noticeably slowed.

I hope Monster has a formidable transition plan or further reduction in North American market share may be their faith.

This is definitely a story we will be watching closely.

The Sun-Times News Group in Chicago has launched a new Real Estate site  for their classified listings.  The new website allows consumers to search Real Estate listings from 90 classified listing titles around the greater Chicago area and 10 counties in Northeastern Illinois and Northwest Indiana.  The new website is located at SearchChicago.com/homes.

The SearchChicago.com  aims to be come the best source for local information including classifed search for automotive, real estate and employment.   SearchChicago.com also provides additional information, like school ratings, dinning and community information but we were unable to combine this with the new search functionality.  For example once we found an attractive condo in downtown Chicago, it was not possible to find the closet school and its rating.

The new site is an advantage for advertisers with 16 photos and enhanced description being included a no additional cost.  The search functionality also includes a detailed map generated using the Google maps product.  All of properties in a geographic region can be mapped on the map for a very visual search.   Each search also includes an RSS feed so that quick updates can be made available.  The search functionality is powered by Adico, one of the leading providers of classified website and search functionality.

Local.com, one of the leading search engines in the US focused on the hyper local market purchased the PremierGuide business directory sites.  As more and more companies chase the hyper local market we expect to see more consolidation between Directories, Search and Classifieds.  These 3 services are expected to become the pillars of the hyper local experience with local events, news and entertainment hanging off of them.

One of the interesting aspects of the Local.com approach is their patent on the local search.  We see this is as a strong barrier to enter for competitors but business process patents have always been difficult to uphold.

The deal is reported at $2M for PremierGuide which had revenues of approximately $800K in the last 12 month period and $300 in operating costs.  The deal does seem very sweet for Local.com and well aligned with their business direction.  Its expected the PremierGuide technology and products will combined into the LocalConnect product line over the next few months.

MediaCorp has launched its new classifieds site, Mocca.com, with a focus on providing more social interaction than is traditionally available for classified sites. The site will focus on the Asian marketing and specifically the Singapore market initially. Going well beyond basic classifieds the site allows users to upload multiple photos and even create virtual tours using video. Currently ads are free as an introductory offer, after the introductory offer Automotive, Real Estate and advertisers wanting to additional photos or rich media pay a fee of $15 per ad.

The site will feature additional social interaction capabilities shortly with the ability to discussion local real estate markets and other connections from MediaCorp partner sites. Mocca has secured commitments from several local real estate companies, including Global Real Estate, ERA Singapore and HSR Property Group.

MediaCorp is committed to growing the site to 50-60M page views over the next 2 years with full advertising support from its radio, print and television partners. The site has also launched with celebrity auctions from its popular media partners which proceedings going to local charities.

CozyBug.com has launched a new classified site focused around larger items traditionally more difficult to sell through classifieds. The site hopes to connect buyers and sellers through Swap Spots. Swap spots are local businesses that assist with getting buyer and seller together and may be able to assist with some the logistics moving large items.

The Swap Spots are an interesting innovation. For years one of the challenges in the classified industry is handling and moving larger items like appliances and furniture. By creating an additional aide to support this system Cozybug should be able to drive additional value for both the classified advertiser and buyer.

Like most new classified sites, basic advertising is free with small charges for additional details like more photos. The site also features rich content for the classified ads and includes a mapping feature for garage sales. Cozybug hopes the rich media will help differentiate it from competitive sites.

Autobytel has launched MyRide.com, a new Automotive with a more focused community experience. Car lovers can use video, audio, multiple pictures, message boards and even blogs to description their favourite cars. The site includes feature articles on popular automotive topics like Hot Rods and Classics but also includes more environmentally friendly topics like Driving Green.

By combining more social features into the site Autobytel hosts to create more of a meeting place for car enthusiasts. The site will be expanded shortly with feature car calendars and car club events. The site is built on the KickApps social media functionality.

The site still features new and use automotive classified ads and this is expected to be the primary revenue source. Its not clear how the site will connect the car fans with the classified listings though. Currently the functionality appears to be very separate so while the new features may drive traffic to the site it might not generate additional interest in the classified listings. The site is a good first attempt at bring social media to the Automotive classified space.

iMoondo announced yesterday that its launched its video classified product. Video classifieds have been available for awhile in some classified verticals, specifically dating, but the process of creating videos has only recently become easier. Even with the advances in technology its not clear if a significant portion of the classified market is willing to move to video.

For now Video Classified areprobably going to be the domain of more professional advertisers that are common in the Automotive and Real Estate divisions. It would make sense for iMoondo to focus its efforts on business that focus on advertising for these professional advertisers.

iMoondo might be on the right track by focusing on integrating its video technology into existing classified sites. This puts them in competition with Youtube and other video sharing sites which can easily be integrated with classified sites.

Autotrader.com has launched a new website focused on their Dealer business. One of the key components of the Automotive Classified business is providing Dealers with the ability to effectively advertiser their vehicles. While the typical consumer may advertise and sell a vehicle ever 3-4 years, successful Dealers will need to advertise and sell thousands of vehicles per year. Its no surprise to see Autotrader.com focusing on this aspect of its business an creating a purpose built site.

With the new Dealers.Autotrader.com site provides a Dashboard for Dealers to quickly see their inventory and vehicle listings. They can make changes to any listing using its simple web interface including the vehicle photos which can be one of the more difficult aspects of the Automotive ad creation. Most consumers expect to see multiple photos and keep track of each photo for each vehicle can be a time consume process. The site also lets the dealer choose between a variety of ad sites and packages. Dealers can also track procpective customers through through the sites lead management tools.

AutoTrader.com is one of the most dominate websites in the US and has been very successful winning advertising dollars from Dealers that have traditionally been print focused. With these changes we expect to see Autotrader.com continue to be a dominate player.

Darby Sieben recently wrote about , Canada’s largest directory launching the ability to save directory listings to a variety of social bookmarking sites. The most interesting component is the ability to post the listing in Facebook. Facebook in Canada is extremely popular and until recently Toronto, Canada was the largest geographic network in Facebook. Some estimates put the Facebook market penetration at 10% of the Canadian population so its no surprise to see large sites like Yellowpages.ca trying to get in on the action.

The Yellowpages.ca works fairly well but was very slow during our testing. Once you find a listing in Yellowpages.ca you can choose to save into most of the popular bookmarking sites or Facebook. The Facebook integration is in the form of a post which is fairly limited and doesn’t take advantage of any of the new features available in the new Facebook Developer Platform. The Yellowpages.ca branding is also very dominating, even including the TM where possible. It would have been good see this more subdued to encourage more use.

DMGT (Daily Mail and General Trust) sold its Irish Buy and Sell for Euro 20 million to Naldin Limited with connections to the Boundary Group. The Boundary Group is an Irish holding company with a reputation for the increasing the rate of return from a variety of businesses. The deal seems like a good fit.

A quick check of Craiglist and Kijiji and other free classified sites shows a limited number of ads in Ireland. The Irish Buy and Sell magazine should be a good position to defend its market share and possibly introduce a free competitor to help defend its market.

There has been speculation for months that DMGT will be selling its Loot business in UK. Loot is also owned by DMGT’s Associated Newspaper Limited. DMGT has retained the Gazelle Corporate Finance Limited to advise on the Loot and Associated Newspaper Limited business operations. Gazelle Corp seem to be experts in mergers, acquisitions, mergers and exits. They seem to well aligned if DMGT’s goal.