The classified advertisements flowing into big newspaper groups were earlier regarded byt the owners of the same as gold rivers. No longer, as the internet breaks the grip that local and regional newspaper once held over their advertising markets. Typically a newspaper would get around 80% of its revenues from advertising of which 2 thirds would come from classifieds. Now newspapers are loosing out. The internet has become the fastest growing advertising medium and reached $5.8bn in the first 6 months of this year in the US, up 26%year on year.
In UK internet advertising grew in the first half of 05 by 62% y/y to $870mio. Search advertisers like Yahoo and Google pocket 40% of the market. Perhaps the most significant development came mid November when Google started up a prototype service called Google base. It offers a searchable database of free listings, including small ads which can be narrowed down to postal regions. Among its first offerings were used cars. In response most print publishers are expanding online. News Corp the biggest holding company of Newspapers in Australia , but also represented in US and Europe is now expanding online. So now online and former pure newspapers are fighting their war which means if you want to advertise you can get it often even for free.