What's New: Exciting Mobile Capabilities Coming Soon
As more and more readers turn not only to the internet for information, but now also to their cell phones and PDAs, it's important that your newspaper keep pace with the latest methods of communication, in order to deliver readers the content they need, in the formats they want most.
Your readers can already send classified listing information to their phone from your paper's website with the Classified Concepts Online Locator. Soon,
you will also be able to offer readers the capability of sending information to their phone directly from the print listing in your paper! As an optional addition to your print and online program features, Classified Concepts will supply a textable code for each listing, allowing readers to receive listing data in a text format sent to their phone, PDA, or other mobile device. Your advertisers will love the accessibility that this new and exciting frontier in advertising has to offer!
This new feature will be available by the end of August; watch your email for more details and for information about how to implement this new addition to your programs.
How Results = Revenue
Finding Success in the Face of a Difficult Market
If anyone knows how challenging the New Builder and Real Estate Market is, it's Las Vegas. Nevada is one of the states hit hardest by the housing crisis, with one in every 43 Nevada households receiving a foreclosure notice, and the number of new home sales down 45.1 percent from 2007 (Las Vegas Review-Journal, 7/17/08).
This month, we are highlighting the Las Vegas Review-Journal, because their story is truly one of success. Despite the dismal market in their area, they have garnered very positive response from advertisers by redesigning their New Home section, which features the New Builders program:
"The Las Vegas Review-Journal has used the maps from Classified Concepts for several years," says Trudi Bentley, of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "These maps are used in print on Saturday and Sunday in "Your Guide to New Homes in Las Vegas." In this guide, the builder can purchase a map box, a black and white 1.5" x 2" display ad, for each community. There is a corresponding map indicator for each map box. These listings and map are also available online with the interactive map."
"Recently, we redesigned the map pages and are now offering a Triple Play package to new home builders that includes the map box in full color, print and online, a 1/3 page block ad in the Las Vegas New Homes Guide (published monthly), and a listing in our online search engine powered by New Home Source."
"For the past several years, the new home builders have attributed the majority of their traffic to the map pages. The information contained in each ad allows the reader to decide on price, area and amenities before going to the community or model home."
"We have had a great response to our redesign with the color ads and the added value of the Triple Play package from our builders. Since launching the redesign and introducing the Triple Play package, we have added 4 new builders and expanded the advertising of several builders, a major accomplishment in today's market."
And we agree! Congratulations to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and keep up the good work.
Industry News
A recent article from The Colorado Independent on the state of newspaper ad revenue featured an interview with Steve Outing, an interactive media columnist for Editor and Publisher, providing some new outlooks on the otherwise dire predictions for newspaper ad revenue:
As websites such as Craigslist and Autotrader have become more popular, newspapers have taken a hit, with auto classifieds dropping 14 percent, employment by 28.8 percent, and real estate by 25.8 percent since 2005.
"Part of the problem is, newspapers didn't recognize what was happening fast enough; but a bigger part of the problem is that the Internet is so much about interaction and communication between people interested in the same things," Outing said. "In that sense it's been a hard shift for the newspaper industry to go from being a bunch of journalists telling people what is important to adopting social networking and other types of interactivity to their platform."
Despite this, Outing does not believe traditional newspaper advertising formats are becoming obsolete. "There is still a huge audience out there that is not into the online thing and who still places a large value in print. I think if the newspaper companies can get at their print and online advertising in better ways, into packages that combine the two and get it out onto the Web, it has the potential to be powerful."
[Source: The Colorado Independent Online "Newspapers Stock Plummeting as the Vultures Keep Circling," July 18, 2008]
Visit us at WCAA!
For those of you planning to attend the WCAA conference in Portland, Oregon, from September 7-10, be sure to stop by the Classified Concepts booth on the trade show floor. Meet face-to-face with our National Sales Manager, Peter Sproul, Client Services Manager, Sarah Sinclair, and the newest faces on the team, Rachel Samson, who specializes in working with Small Market Dailies, and Jeremy Bradfield, our eastern territory manager.
You won't want to miss the unveiling of the latest technologies we are working on to help your paper, including more information about CCText, upgrades to the online locator, and more. We will be holding special information sessions at our booth during the following times at the conference:
- Monday, September 8, 7:30 am
- Tuesday, September 9, 7:30 am
- Tuesday, September 9, 5:30pm (with a special wine tasting event)
- Wednesday, September 10, 7:30 am
Plus, you'll be entered into our grand-prize drawing of a trip for two to Santa Barbara. We look forward to seeing you there!
