Pew: Online classified services devastating newspaper revenues

Online classified services such as Craigslist have seen user numbers soar while newspapers continue to experience revenue losses as a consequence, according to new data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

by Helen Leggatt

The number of adults turning to online classified sites has risen substantially since 2005. In the ensuing four years, Pew found that the number of adults in the U.S. that had visited an online classified service more than doubled from 22% to 49%.

A similar trend was shown for those visiting classified services on a daily basis - up from 4% in 2005 to 9% in the period March 26 to April 19, 2009.

The knock-on effect for newspapers has been devastating. At the turn of the century, annual revenue from classified ads in newspapers was almost $20 billion, found Pew. However, by 2008 that figure had dropped to just under $10 billion, a drop of 49%.

The most-used online classified services site is Craigslist which attracts 93% of classifieds traffic, according to comScore, which translated into just under 47 million visitors this April. The next largest competitor, eBay-owned Kijiji, clocked up just 3.9 million visitors in the same month.