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 CareerBuilder.ca’s strategic partnership with portal Lycos Canada to serve up job listings to Lycos searchers.
Huddling together against the cold breath of the future.
