In our recent contest for best idea for reinventing classifieds, student edition, winner Will Sommer suggested that the dullness of newspaper classifieds is part of the problem. Make them fun, he suggested, and newspapers might have a chance of fighting back against Craigslist and the other forces lined up against them. The other day I [...]

We all know that incremental changes won’t save newspaper classifieds. It’s time to try some truly innovative ideas and experiments. So check out the latest NewsInnovation blog post by publisher John Newby: Now Here’s A Game Changer For The Industry? I love this idea. OK, I haven’t thought Newby’s idea through carefully enough to say [...]

A couple of great advice pieces were published recently by some smart folks I know. Their ideas definitely pertain to classifieds reinvention, even though they may be speaking about online advertising overall. 1. Five Fatal Flaws that are killing local Internet plays – Dave Chase, SunValleyOnline.com (published on NewsInnovation.com) This is an outstanding critique of [...]

  More great ideas… Don’t miss descriptions of some of the best other ideas submitted by contest entrants who want to turn around newspaper classifieds. Scroll down the page or click. Also see our student contest winner! We were looking for innovative and unusual ideas to reinvigorating newspaper classifieds when we offered $500 to the [...]

Congratulations to Will Sommer of Georgetown University, who has won our student competition for best idea to save newspaper classifieds (and will be receiving $500 from ReinventingClassifieds.com). More about Sommer and his idea below. But since he made his entry a multimedia presentation, first take a couple minutes to watch, then read on. (Clicking the [...]

Earlier I wrote about the importance of “curating” ads from other sources, adding them to your own classifieds site (with credit and links to the original source, of course). I have an anecdote for you — from my wife, Suzanne — about why this is important. She’s currently looking for a new school librarian position [...]

As we’ve noted here recently, a growing number of newspapers are cutting out some days entirely from their print production schedule (or in the case of Detroit’s papers, stopping home delivery for all but three days a week and producing a newsstand-sale-only thinner edition on the other four days). Others are cutting out just their [...]

Well, it looks like this is a trend we’ll be seeing more and more of. Earlier this week, the Boston Globe stopped publishing classifieds sections on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Print focus will be on the Friday and weekend editions with their jobs, autos, and homes advertising sections. Thursday regional additions also may have [...]

Steve Rosenbaum has written a useful trend piece for AlwaysOn, “2009 – 5 Trends That Will Change Media.” Here’s an excerpt of his first trend, which has classifieds implications: Growth of the Curation Economy “As the cost of the creation of content continues to come down, more content creators will come online. This will create [...]

We’ve been lucky enough here at ReinventingClassifieds.com to have some smart media minds contribute their thoughts and ideas to this website on the topic of resurrecting and saving newspaper classifieds. In case you’ve missed the words of wisdom of these guest experts, we invite you to catch up. Here’s a handy set of links to [...]