Last week, the Houston Chronicle’s website flipped the switch and became the latest newspaper to convert from its old system for general classified ads to using Kaango, the newspaper company-owned classifieds platform provider and ad network in use now by more than 200 newspapers and TV stations. (The Chron is sticking with Yahoo Hotjobs for [...]

I had an interesting e-mail exchange today with someone who follows ReinventingClassifieds.com. He objected to some of the ideas that were presented by Tim Windsor as being too radical, too crazy to be taken seriously. And he warned me that by presenting ideas that are too “out there,” newspaper classified advertising managers might decide not [...]

Tim Windsor Tim Windsor (fortunately) has a little time on his hands after recently leaving his post as VP interactive for Tribune Co.’s Baltimore Sun. So he’s been increasing his blogging on Zero Percent Idle, and has written a great post with suggestions for renewing newspapers’ classifieds business, focusing specifically on the troubled recruitment component. [...]

Recently in an Editor & Publisher Online column, I described a couple innovative print classified initiatives from the Baltimore Sun and the St. Petersburg Times. The Sun, with its FindIt! recruitment stand-alone section introduced a few weeks ago, and the Times with its overall-classifieds BayLink section introduced last May, both took the approach of incorporating [...]

Tim Windsor, who recently departed his position as VP interactive for the Baltimore Sun, is taking up our challenge to offer a good idea or two for reinvigorating and reinventing newspaper companies’ classifieds operations. On his blog today, Windsor makes the case for first defining the crisis. Check out his chart, crafted from Newspaper Association [...]

I hope you’ve noticed that ReinventingClassifieds.com is running a couple contests, soliciting ideas for saving newspaper classifieds from continuing to spiral downward: one for media pros and another for college students. We’re giving away some cash prizes for the best essay submissions. Quite a few folks shared their ideas over the weekend after I put [...]

Hey there, innovative media/advertising thinkers. The newspaper industry needs your ideas, now more than ever! Help us figure out how to reinvent and save newspaper classifieds, and thus the industry. … We’ve got a competition going that will reward $500 to the person with the best idea. Check it out and fire up those brain [...]

Are you a college student who is studying media and/or advertising? Are you innovative? Would you like to help newspapers reinvent classified advertising? … We’ve got a contest for you. Share your ideas or proposed solutions. The winning essay will win $500 cash. Check out the contest. The newspaper industry needs you! >>>

What’s wrong with most newspaper classifieds? Over on Twitter, the wildly popular micro-blogging website, I spotted Matt Neznanski’s succinct answer to that question. (Twitter forces its users to make their statement in 140 or fewer characters.) Is he describing your classifieds operation? What can you do to make his gripe a thing of the past? [...]

The Society for News Design is holding its annual conference this week in Las Vegas. Alas, I’m not there, but I nevertheless have a suggestion for this group of mostly newspaper editors, designers and artists: Turn your attention to redesigning newspaper classifieds, in print and online! Looking at the conference schedule, you’ll see that there [...]