Online Classifieds Show Potential
While the $100
billion global classified-advertising market is still largely the
pursuit of newspapers (on the mainstream media side), thanks to
their online outlets TV, cable and radio stations are making inroads
into print publications once secure monopoly.
A study by
ClassifiedIntelligence.com found that TV station web sites in
all top 50 U.S. markets offer classifieds, as do radio sites in 47
of the top 50 markets.
For TV station
classified sites, real estate is the strongest category in the top
10 markets. However, when you look at the TV markets that are below
the top 10, real estate is relatively even with both automotive and
job classifications.
In the case of
radio stations, the top 10 markets have tended to ignore the use of
online classified ads. Penetration is more perceptible when it comes
to markets ranked 11 to 50, especially for autos and jobs.