User:Anglombardi/Classified Advertising

A prominent medium in media is classified advertising. Compared to national newspaper advertising, classified advertising generates more money. Classified advertising maintains press freedom by serving as a stable financial force. Classified advertising also receives less criticism than general advertising for various reasons.

In recent years the term "classified advertising" or "classified ads" has expanded from merely the sense of print advertisements in periodicals to include similar types of advertising on computer services, radio, and even television, particularly cable television but occasionally broadcast television as well, with the latter occurring typically very early in the morning hours.

Traditional media, whose survival depends heavily on advertising investments, are steadily declining to interactive advertising channels like the Internet, iDTV, and mobile technology. When advertising sales account for 40% to 70% of a newspaper's revenue, it is seen to be in good financial condition.

Media advertising is under threat from an increasing number of advertising bans. Advertising for goods with a lot of fat, sugar, and salt is prohibited in children's programming, along with tobacco and alcohol (in many countries). New digital technology, however, can give newspapers a variety of new opportunities. Combining a newspaper's print and online versions allows marketers to explore new methods. Newspapers are battling to keep classified ads online, and interactive internet advertising opportunities can counter below-the-line ads' rising popularity.

Craigslist.org was one of the first online classified sites, and has grown to become the largest classified source, in July 2006 Craigslist attracted 13.8 million visitors, up an impressive 99% during that past year alone. We estimate that Craigslist's entry led to $5.0 billion (the year 2000 dollars) in savings to classified-ad buyers during 2000–2007.

Lead
Classified Advertising is a marketing medium frequently found in periodicals like newspapers or magazines. These ads normally contained abbreviated words and short right to the point messages, to save money and space. Ads normally show offers or requests for jobs, furniture, cars, etc.

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Newspaper Classified

A prominent medium in media is classified advertising. Compared to national newspaper advertising, classified advertising generates more money. Classified advertising maintains press freedom by serving as a stable financial force. Classified advertising also receives less criticism than general advertising for various reasons.

Advertisements in a newspaper are typically short, as they are charged for by the line or word, and are one newspaper column wide.

Publications printing news or other information often have sections of classified advertisements; there are also publications that contain only advertisements. The advertisements are grouped into categories or classes such as "for sale—telephones", "wanted—kitchen appliances", and "services—plumbing", hence the term "classified". Classified ads generally fall into two types: individuals advertising sales of their personal goods, and advertisements by local businesses. Some businesses use classified ads to hire new employees.

One issue with newspaper classified advertising is that it does not allow images, even though display ads, which do allow images, can be found in the classified section.

Developments

In recent years the term "classified advertising" or "classified ads" has expanded from merely the sense of print advertisements in periodicals to include similar types of advertising on computer services, radio, and even television, particularly cable television but occasionally broadcast television as well, with the latter occurring typically very early in the morning hours. Traditional media, whose survival depends heavily on advertising investments, are steadily declining to interactive advertising channels like the Internet, iDTV, and mobile technology. When advertising sales account for 40% to 70% of a newspaper's revenue, it is seen to be in good financial condition.

Like most forms of printed media, the classified ad has found its way to the Internet, as newspapers have taken their classified ads online and new groups have discovered the benefits of classified advertising.

Internet classified ads do not typically use per-line pricing models, so they tend to be longer. They are also searchable, unlike printed material, tend to be local, and may foster a greater sense of urgency as a result of their daily structure and wider scope for audiences. Because of their self-regulatory nature and low cost structures, some companies offer free classifieds internationally. Other companies focus mainly on their local hometown region, while others blanket urban areas by using postal codes. Craigslist.org was one of the first online classified sites, and has grown to become the largest classified source, in July 2006 Craigslist attracted 13.8 million visitors, up an impressive 99% during that past year alone. We estimate that Craigslist's entry led to $5.0 billion (the year 2000 dollars) in savings to classified-ad buyers during 2000–2007. The sex ad section of the site was probed by authorities until it was shut down indefinitely. A growing number of sites and companies have begun to provide specialized classified marketplaces online, catering to niche market products and services, such include boats, pianos, pets, and adult services, amongst others. In many cases, these specialized services provide better and more targeted search capabilities than general search engines or general classified services can provide. Facebook marketplace provides classified-style services but prohibits the sale of firearms. Other online classified ads websites now exist, Gumtree and Preloved are well known examples. A relatively new entry to this group is Little Breeders Pet Portal that provides its services to UK residents. Media advertising is under threat from an increasing number of advertising bans. Advertising for goods with a lot of fat, sugar, and salt is prohibited in children's programming, along with tobacco and alcohol (in many countries). New digital technology, however, can give newspapers a variety of new opportunities. Combining a newspaper's print and online versions allows marketers to explore new methods. Newspapers are battling to keep classified ads online, and interactive internet advertising opportunities can counter below-the-line ads' rising popularity.

A number of online services called aggregators crawl and aggregate classifieds from sources such as blogs and RSS feeds, as opposed to relying on manually submitted listings.

Additionally, other companies provide online advertising services and tools to assist members in designing online ads using professional ad templates and then automatically distributing the finished ads to the various online ad directories as part of their service. In this sense these companies act as both an application service provider and a content delivery platform. Social classifieds is a growing niche.

Statistics

In 2003 the market for classified ads in the United States was $15.9 billion (newspapers), $14.1 billion (online) according to market researcher Classified Intelligence. The worldwide market for classified ads in 2003 was estimated at over $100 billion. Perhaps due to the lack of a standard for reporting, market statistics vary concerning the total market for internet classified ads. The Kelsey Research Group listed online classified ads as being worth $13.3 billion, while Jupiter Research provided a conservative appraisal of $2.6 billion and the Interactive Advertising Bureau listed the net worth of online classified revenue at $2.1 billion.

Newspaper's revenue from classifieds advertisements is decreasing continually as internet classifieds grow. Classified advertising at some of the larger newspaper chains dropped by 14% to 20% in 2007, while traffic to classified sites grew by 23%.

As the online classified advertising sector develops, there is an increasing emphasis toward specialization. Vertical markets for classifieds are developing quickly along with the general marketplace for classifieds websites. Like search engines, classified websites are often specialized, with sites providing advertising platforms for niche markets of buyers or sellers.