That’s easy to answer. Newspapers are to blame. Elitism is to blame. Arrogance is to blame. I could go on but I won’t.
This is a sore that has been festering for a while. And no, his name isn’t Craig, well it is, sort of. Newspapers keep crying that classifieds are killing them–taking away up to 40% of their profits. Newspapers, which once had dozens of pages of classified ads, now have only one or two pages of classifieds. So is it Craig’s fault or the newspaper industry’s fault?
Same answer as before. If someone handed me the keys to the kingdom I’d give away my classified ads. I know, you are saying ‘so what, that is being done.’ But what newspapers aren’t doing is to print them for free, too.
Why?
1. Printed newspapers don’t matter at all in job searches anymore. Why? Multiple reasons. First, no one looks at classifieds in newspapers because there are no classifieds. The second reason is all the job sites that exist. So how do you solve that?
2. Get dozens of pages of classifieds again. And thousands upon thousands of classifieds on your website. Then you become the go to place for that city or region or state. Instead newspapers are being nitched to death by Craig and his list, Ebay, Monster, Career Builder, The Ladders and more.
3. Everyone can give classifieds away online for free. Almost no one but a newspaper can print them. Did someone forget business 101 and the power of the good old strategic competitive advantage? Craig, Ebay, etc. aren’t going to be buying printing presses any time soon.
4. The more eyeballs you bring, the more advertising you can sell. It’s that simple.
