Jared Launius and Hojong Kim with RJI fellow Peter Meng

It starts with a problem… Newspapers have lost an estimated $16 billion in classified ad revenues since the advent of Craigslist 15 years ago Fact: this has helped contribute to the closing of several newspapers Opinion: as a side-effect, it has impacted the quality of news, particularly local news

…and it’s difficult to address Craigslist leaves approximately $6 billion on the table every year Fact: It would take an estimated $1 billion in advertising to take them head on Opinion: that is a lot of money

AdFreeq: an introduction A white-label site operated and branded through local online publications, primarily newspapers Cloud-based – operates and updates in real time using ads in system, on social media Offers free and low-cost ads to sellers Offers reliable, instant products to buyers

So, back to that problem… Isn’t a 1 vs. 1 battle “Instead of David vs. Goliath, it’s thousands of Davids vs. one Goliath.” Ads can bring in revenues for publications Users have access to system they can trust

Our involvement Goals revolved around getting product ready for the market Conduct research on both host and consumer markets Discover best way to organize ad categories Work with potential clients Produce and develop content to market the product

Research …of potential users …of potential hosts What we wanted to know How receptive are users to using a classified system that charges? How much will they pay? Do users already use social media to buy and sell products? Does it matter to them who’s running the system? What we wanted to know What’s their current system? Proprietary? Custom? Free? Paid-for? What are their levels of satisfaction with their current models? What social media does the publication already integrate to push content?

Survey of potential users Conducted on SurveyMonkey 308 respondents 67 percent were female 94 percent were college age Disseminated over J-school ListServ and over social media

What we learned from users

What we learned from users

What we learned from users

What we learned from potential hosts Survey was conducted thanks to help from RJI Sent nine-question survey to over 5,000 publications 285 took survey 50% were rural publications and 50% were weeklies

What we learned from hosts

What we learned from hosts What is the average price per week to post a classified ad in your publication? Also, please indicate whether you offer free classified ad postings. $35 for 35 words or 7 lines for 2 insertion in English or Punjabi papers / Classified Display ad $45 for B&W and $ 55 for Color per insertion of 3.25"(W) x 2" (H). $15.00 plus tax plus free on our web site. $37.50 and yes we do off FREE classified ads on Tue, Wed, and Thur. $15.36 for a 20 word ad free lost and found ads free ads for giveaways. $19.95 line ad $37.45 1x1 classified display for two issues. $50 is the average. We offer a free ad for private party merchandise items valued under $500. 1 per month allowed. The ad size is a 1/4" depth (we have a 4 column format). $50.96 for a 4-line ad. We do offer a Grandma's Attic feature for articles selling for under $500. The price of ad is based on the asking price of the item. $25 and under are FREE. We offer free private party ads. Paid private party ads start at $5/week. Commercial classified ads start at $15.70 per week. Average price $20 However, we do offer some free classifieds. Depends on the category Merchandise- $22.50 Auto-$39.50 Real Estate-$59.50 Pets/Announcements/ -$39.50. That is a difficult question to answer as we have some private party ads that cost as little a $10 on and then employment ads that are very expensive. No FREE ads – The cost great depends on what type of advertising you are doing. There are different rates for private party vs. commercial businesses vs. recruitment.

What we learned from hosts

What we learned from hosts

Classified taxonomies Studied and analyzed taxonomies from some 15 different classified sites Used that research to build a list of our own that could potentially be used as a model for AdFreeq to organize its items

Involvement with clients Originally planned to work with and manage clients in test markets Were able to make several connections via survey

Supporting content Developed a substantial amount of content for Peter to use at fairs, presentations, etc. Made site mock-ups, research summaries, infographics based on our research, animations and posters

Supporting Content

Supporting Content

What we learned