(January 16, 2008) So, the newspapers have finally invented the advertising agency.
Someone might want to remind them that TMP and Hodes both had to segregate their media businesses from their agency businesses. The problem is that you can not make unbiased recommendations when you are the owner of one of the properties under consideration.
That said, the launch of Personified marks a profound inflection point for the newspaper industry.
Classified advertising is all but dead in the print form and online advertising services are rapidly eliminating the newspapers as players. CareerBuilder has compiled an astonishing and aggressive track record. It has played the game unlike any of its predecessors.
While the newspaper industry has been throwing money at the problem for nearly two decades, CareerBuilder is the first glimmer of success.
Growth is a challenging objective in a market where the basic unit price is always declining. In order for CareerBuilder to continue to meet growth objectives, it must crawl out from the advertising ghetto. Personified is their first attempt to do so.
If you’ll excuse a bit of vanity, their product and service offerings sound like a recapitulation of a decades worth of my writings. So, I have to think that the services themselves are really good ideas. If they can get the billing approach correct, this is a real threat to the already eroding advertising agency franchises. This is a good, smart, somewhat predictable move by CareerBuilder.
It’s where the newspapers have needed to go for a long time.
John Sumser. – © 2008 Two Color Hat, Inc. Santa Rosa, CA
