Are free classifieds the answer for newspapers?
You have already read Andrew Chavez's great piece here on this site about the impact of Craigslist on newspaper classifieds. Now check out these three articles from NAA that tell the stories of three newspapers that have gone to free classifieds:
- Oregonian Aims to Change Perceptions, Create Attractive Marketplace
- Atlanta: An Exchange of Sites and Mindsets
- In Houston, Kaango Brand Boosts Print
NAA's Digital Edge blog also tells the story of a smaller newspaper, The Daily Journal of Kankakee, Ill., which went to a free classifieds concept (no URL here because you need a Digital Edge subscription to access this one, so read on to find out what happened).
For the Kankakee paper, the impetus was the establishment of a free shopper four years ago. The shopper sold its display ads but gave away its classifieds. The paper hired a temporary employee who called everyone who had taken out a free ad in the shopper, telling them that the Journal also had free ads and had a much greater circulation.
The shopper even offered free auto ads - the newspaper countered with a $19.95 "Run It 'Till It Sells" promotion. It partnered with a local car wash to offer $5 car wash coupons for readers who submitted a photo along with their six lines of ad copy.
The paper even purchased digital cameras and offered to take a photo of a reader's car if the owner brought the vehicle to the newspaper office. The bottom line: The Daily Journal's classified section has grown to more than four times its original size.
Says the paper's classifieds manager: "It's been phenomenal. We actually didn't see a downturn in revenue after we started this." Even the pet section has grown, with dog breeders across the state wanting to advertise.
The result? The free shopper has disappeared, and The Daily Journal has maintained its free classifieds policy for merchandise under $400. Since the shopper died, the paper changed its policy to offer the free classified only to newspaper subscribers. Each month, the paper signs up 25 to 30 new subscribers because of the free classifieds offer.
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Bio
Tommy Thomason, the founding director of the TCU Schieffer School of Journalism, has left that position to become the founding director of the Texas Center for Community Journalism. Thomason began his career in journalism in the early 1970s with the Associated Press, working as a sportswriter in Arkadelphia and Little Rock, Ark. He has also worked in public relations in Dallas and as a copyeditor for several regional magazines.
Dr. Thomason has taught journalism at five universities and has been at TCU since 1984. In 1987, he was one of the winners of a national Teaching Award in Journalism Ethics from the Poynter Institute of Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla.
He has been one of the nation's most active researchers on the media's treatment of crime victims. His research has been presented at both regional and national symposia and has cited in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Time magazine, Presstime and the Columbia Journalism Review.
Dr. Thomason was co-director of the first national symposium on crime victims and the news media, which was televised nationally on C-SPAN, and a symposium on coverage of sex crimes, Sex in the Media: The Public's Right to Know vs. the Victim's Right to Privacy.
He maintains an interest in writing at all academic levels, and frequently speaks to elementary school teachers about writing workshops for children. He is the author of More than a Writing Teacher: How to Become a Teacher Who Writes, Writer to Writer: How to Conference Young Authors, Write On Target: How to Prepare Young Writers for Success on Writing Achievement Tests, Absolutely Write: Teaching the Craft Elements of Writing and Writeaerobics: 40 Exercises to Improve Your Writing Teaching. A new book, Tools, not Rules: Teaching Grammar in the Writing Classroom, is scheduled for publication in 2009.
He is listed in Who's Who in the South and Southwest, Who's Who in American Education, Men of Achievement, Who's Who in the World and Dictionary of International Biography.
