Another Stab at Maintaining Classifieds Revenue Stream

Despite the trend towards enabling free classifieds on local news and newspaper sites, some are still going the paid route. The Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret Morning News, run by the Newspaper Agency Corporation (NAC) has just signed AdPay as its classified ad management service provider. AdPay’s Click-N-Buy Classifieds let classifieds advertisers create listings that are integrated with print classifieds or Web listings that can feature photos and multimedia. Another interesting component: the technology enables ecommerce transactions, and lets advertisers charge a fixed price or auction off wares to the highest bidder. They can set up e-tail storefronts, too.

Other AdPay customers include big newspaper media groups like Advance Internet, E. W. Scripps Company, The McClatchy Company and The New York Times Company.

I posted recently about another classifieds management technology from Maps.com that automatically posts listings and incorporates them into an interactive map display. The company’s going after local TV station sites to sell the Classified Concepts tool.

The question remains: will people continue to pay for classifieds when they can post for free to Craigslist, Google Base and others? I can foresee local news sites continuing to be draw revenue from real estate, auto and job listings, and possibly personals, but as for the rinky-dink bedroom set for sale stuff, we’ll see….