News Publishers Move into College Markets
Important Details: MediaNews, now the fourth-largest news publisher in the U.S., has announced its first niche distribution partnership in the college market. The company is partnering with AfterCollege. The initiative: upsell classified recruitment customers who want to reach college graduates.
"We have to extend beyond newspaper readership," Rhonda Canino told Outsell. Canino is MediaNews’ director of business development for the important recruitment category. Recruitment is the single largest revenue producer in newspaper classifieds.
The program, already up in the San Jose and Denver markets, and to be rolled out to all of the company’s 54 newspaper markets within 3-6 months, offers employers and recruitment agencies a new young market. For an upsell price of less than 10%, job offerers will target college campuses across the country. Canino says AfterCollege was chosen because it extends beyond colleges’ career centers into divisions and departments; "It recognizes the networking within those places on campus." AfterCollege already has partnerships in place with the Belo-owned Dallas Morning News and the Hearst-owned Houston Chronicle, in addition to a relationship with CareerBuilder, the leading newspaper recruitment site.
For MediaNews, it’s the first niche play in recruitment. While no others are on the docket, Canino says she is open to opportunity. The agreement comes on the heels of the recent newspaper consortium/Yahoo! HotJobs agreement. That program is partially implemented, Canino said, and awaiting phased, full implementation with the launch of a new Yahoo! HotJobs platform, now scheduled for mid-year.
Gannett is approaching the college market in another way — buying into it. It has just announced the purchase of the Central Florida Future, the student newspaper of the the University of Central Florida. The purchase follows Gannett’s purchase of Florida State University’s student newspapers last year. Gannett says students will continue to operate the Future.
In Outsell’s Opinion: As Rhonda Canino says, the baby boomers will soon be leaving the job market, and young people are highly desirable to replace them. MediaNews’ move into a more direct college market relationship is a smart one. Even though it will enjoy some college targeting through Yahoo! HotJobs, the more direct its relationships in sales and in customer relationships, the better off its business will be in the long run. In addition, the AfterCollege agreement marks a niching first for MediaNews recruitment and may open up new niching opportunities in other sectors. MediaNews can walk here before it runs.
Gannett’s approach is a significant one as well. Metro and community dailies have long gone after the elusive college segment, with little success. Better to own properties that students consider their communities’ voices — as long as that sense of voice and community is maintained. Curiously, student newspaper readership has continued strong even as metro dailies have declined. Gannett may learn something new here about the part of niche community.