I was asking myself this question the other day when I came across this article. The third paragraph is the most interesting one. I'll let it speak for itself.

"To sustain online revenue growth, newspaper publishers have begun striking deals with each other, as well as established online players, to share content and Web traffic. Of course, classifieds are a major focus, as newspapers try to rebuild their old profit centers online. This category proves especially well-suited to economies of scale. (Simply put, the more listings, the better).

CareerBuilder, a joint venture between Tribune, Gannett, and McClatchy, is a good example of a newspaper-dominated network; meanwhile, strategic partnerships with Yahoo's HotJobs, or Monster.com, fall into the hybrid category.

However, the basic obstacle to growth in online newspaper classifieds is how they are sold--usually as "upsells" bundled with print classified listings for an extra fee. This strategy has worked to drive strong online growth until now, with online classifieds representing as much as 70% of newspapers' total online revenues. But the system is obviously vulnerable to the accelerating decline in print classifieds. As it falls, the number of opportunities for online "upsells" decreases, too."

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Labels: Industry News, Job boards