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 […]

The latest trend in the beleaguered newspaper industry is cutting print editions from some days of the week. In recent weeks we’ve seen the Christian Science Monitor decide to publish only one print edition a week on Sundays, with the rest of the week covered online only; a number of newspapers have cut back on […]

I’d like to point my classifieds readers over to an Editor & Publisher Online column that I wrote this week: “My ‘Crisis’ Advice to Newspaper Company CEOs: 11 Points to Ponder.” While it’s a prescription for what ails the newspaper industry overall, I think it’s worth reading through a classifieds lens.
Of the 11 points, classifieds […]

You might have noticed that the Boston Globe introduced a new print-edition redesign today. There’s an extensive FAQ explaining all the changes, of which some are attempts to make the paper better (of course) and others are necessary cutbacks for the paper to survive in tough times.
Alas, all the changes are to the editorial and […]

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 […]

You might find my latest column for Editor & Publisher Online of interest: “Print Classifieds for the Internet Age.”
It’s a look at a new trend among (a still small number of) newspapers to turn their printed classifieds into something completely different by not only redesigning the ad component, but turning the sections into credible editorial […]

Let’s talk printed classifieds for a bit, and specifically design. Here’s an issue worth pondering:
Given that newspaper print-edition readers are aging (average age is now north of 50), is it time to increase the type size of classified liners to accommodate the deteriorating vision that we all get as we grow older?

Bad: narrow columns, centered […]

Long-time newspaper journalist turned interactive media expert Joe Michaud recently left his post as president of MaineToday.com (part of the Portland Press-Herald in Maine) and joined the AIM Group/Classified Intelligence as senior analyst. Now that he’s settled into his home office outside Portland to work for AIM and consult for several New England newspaper clients, […]

I’m working on a white paper / report about how to redesign print classifieds sections for the modern world. (I’ll keep you posted on my progress and when it might be available.) And I have to say: It’s disturbing how slowly that’s happening, especially at U.S. newspapers.
If you look around at newspaper classifieds sections, most […]