A few words as classifieds managers head into 2009

As we end 2008, we media people can only hope that 2009 will be an improvement. Of course, all signs indicate that it’ll be even worse. Well, whatever happens (ad sales and circulation for newspapers plummet even more; some media companies follow over-leveraged Tribune Co. into bankruptcy; some newspapers, in big towns and small, shut down as investors no longer want to take a chance on a declining industry, even at fire-sale prices), it’s sure to be an eventful and stressful year ahead.

Reinvent! … but save the core.

What’s the life of a newspaper classifieds manager going to be like? Here’s a guess. They’ll either become super innovators, trying out new approaches, new partnerships, new technology, and new solutions — or get out of the business, retire, or get booted out the door by their anxious bosses. I don’t think there’s much room in the newspaper business in 2009 for complacency. It’s innovate or die. (More specifically on the latter, innovate, fail, then die; or fail to innovate and die.)

The word of the year: radical. It’s no longer reasonable to make incremental changes and hope that they can turn around a declining classifieds operation. This is especially the case at newspapers owned by over-leveraged media giants that went on acquisition spending sprees a couple years ago, expecting revenue numbers to decline modestly but still produce enough revenue to service the debt. Now that the ad declines for many of those companies turned out to be much worse, and some newspaper parent companies are beginning to fail at meeting their debt service requirements, the pressure is on to get newspaper advertising back on a growth track.

In the year ahead, we’ll offer up ideas, strategies, and solutions that we hope will help. We still believe that newspapers have a strong position in classified advertising (in print, online, and mobile — though mostly the growth must come from the latter two), but they must act smarter and more aggressively with innovation.

For when you return from your holiday breaks and ponder how to survive — even beat — the year ahead, here’s one tip that we at ReinventingClassifieds.com believe is vital to your survival. (We’ll have more suggestions soon.)

Reinvent your classifieds operation with digital at the center, if you haven’t already done that. When an advertiser calls your classifieds rep, contracted call center, or places an ad via your website or mobile phone application, you are collecting all the information you can so that it can be used in appropriate ways in multiple media formats — the print edition being just one.

In 2009, the print edition is NOT king, even if print classifieds are still bringing in more revenue than digital classifieds. Place bets on the future, not the slipping business model that is the past.

Once past that psychological barrier, start thinking about how to get your advertisers’ messages out to as many places as possible, not just the print edition of the newspaper and its website. Become THE place that advertisers come to reach potential customers wherever they may be spending time (PCs, phones, game machines, Kindles, you name it). You are no longer in a company that runs a newspaper and a website. If you still believe that, it truly is time to move on.

Good luck in 2009. We’ll be here to help.