Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine brings together several items in a blog entry about changes impacting newspapers and, in particular, classified advertising. Jeff quotes several sources and offers his own comments including these gems:
In short: Newspapers will compete with Google’s AdSense and try to grab the auctioned pay-per-click advertising that is going there. Newspapers are trying to hold onto local in this new ad universe. They are also hoping to grab new advertisers at a lower cost: The bet in hyperlocal is that the small advertisers who could never afford newspapers could now take advantage of ads that are affordable because they are highly targeted and have next-to-no cost of sale and production.
For newspapers, it’s already clear that the classified marketplace is being replaced. But this also has big mplications for Google.
All relevant in the context of the free classified model launching with Sydney’s Daily Telegraph this weekend.
I guess selfishly I’m happy for newspapers to play because it makes the papers I sell relevant in the changing marketplace. On the other hand, I wish there was more focus on the relevance of the newspaper as a newspaper.