Newspapers around the world are experimenting with free classified advertisements as their strategy to compete with free online classifieds. They seem to think that mimicking online free ads is the only way to compete.
Free ads are just that and while I am not an expert in this field it seems to me that by charging something and delivering an added value service you’re immediately qualifying content and reader/viewer. The free ad pond is big and full or all sorts of stuff. Without qualification and any sort of barrier free attracts, well, everything. A paid for pond, on the other hand, has, by its very nature, some order and regulation for buyer and seller. It’s more commercial from the outset.
News in this last fortnight demonstrates the problems for free. Look at the story (Mother accused of offering 4-year-old for sex over Internet) about Craigslist. The Craigslist folks have said they cannot monitor every advertisement. Newspapers do that and therein lies one reason for their cost model versus free. That seems like a selling feature to me.
This is why I think newspapers, if they wish to continue to play in the classified advertising space, need to focus on a paid model. However, they need to deliver the added value one would reasonably expect in paying for something which is free elsewhere. It is not that difficult. Newspaper publishers need to reassert their leadership in the classified advertising stakes if they are to regain lost ground. Playing me too will only speed up the collapse of their classified advertising revenue.