The Union-Tribune’s own website announces that “in an attempt to maintain readership of its classified advertising in the face of competition from growing Web sites” they will offer free classifieds for items sold by individuals up to the value of $5,000.
The Union-Tribune is the first major city newspaper to make an offer of this size. This offer dwarfs the Daily Telegraph and Trading Post offers currently playing out in Sydney.
Watch as many US newspapers follow this lead on free classifieds. I anticipate that Australian newspapers will offer higher value classifieds for free as a result of the US trend.
This model sees newspapers trying to match the offering from Craigslist. My sense is that you don’t compete by essentially doing what a competitor is doing.
Classified advertising is the battleground and it’s getting tough.