Professor Elam

Tuesday March 15, 2010

This graphic shows the decline in newspaper classified advertising. As the article in Business Insider remarked, it did not have to be this way. Revenue is less than one tenth what it was ten years ago.Once this is gone it is not coming back. 

When I lived in Odessa in the 1980s and 1990s,an independent classified only called the Thrifty Nickel really took hold. While it never seemed to do much in Central Texas, it was obviously a smash hit in West Texas. One could visit the Thrifty Nickel office and observe the low overhead and obvious business growth. Why did the established Odessa and Midland papers not take this head on in a  price war, beats me. Now if newspapers lose the auto ads on Saturday and the real estate ads on Sunday they really are toast. 

The alternatives of E Bay, Craigs List, etc have of course hastened the decline of print classifieds. 

THis is a good example of just how fast an established industry can implode, have you read Black Swan yet? Notice when I have mentioned this in class everyone just replies with a blank eyed stare. The Black Swan is an unexpected event, yesterday in the newspaper business, today in Japan.