Bye-bye classified

Every time I say that classified didn’t just move online, it is dying as a category, someone chimes into the comments, arguing that it couldn’t be so. But look at this report from PaidContent. Software, social software, and online functionality are replacing the classified ad. The internet makes connections and ads are supposed to make connections and now they can be made directly:

In the past six months, visits to the big three online recruiters, Monster, Yahoo’s HotJobs, and CareerBuilder dropped by 23.7 percent, 18.4 percent, and 7.1 percent, respectively, Hitwise reports. The reason, BusinessWeek reports, is the rise of social networks and job sites dedicated to matching employers and job seekers in very specific pockets of the job market – sites where musicians looking for work on cruise ships, for example. To cope, The Big Three have been embarking on series of partnerships with newspaper chains – cases in point: Monster’s deal with Freedom Communications, which owns 36 newspapers and eight TV stations; also’s strategic partnership with portal Lycos Canada to serve up job listings to Lycos searchers.

Huddling together against the cold breath of the future.

  • Michael Savoy

    As the classifieds go so goes the MSM’s future.

  • Robert Feinman

    The job sites just don’t work well, people get treated like inventory and the employers use quick things like keywords to find suitable matches.

    Nobody is happy with the results and the word gets around. Much as I dislike most middlemen there are times when a human intermediary makes sense (matchmakers and recruiting firms come to mind).

  • ashok

    I’m not sure I understand the full significance of the classified ad: is it representative of a way of doing business?

    It always seemed pretty human to me, I dunno.