Zillow’s Big Newspaper Deal
Zillow announced this morning that a consortium of 11 print newspaper publishers (representing 282 newspapers) are syndicating their real-estate listings to Zillow:
- Again this is the newspaper industry diversifying (hedging where Yahoo! is concerned) and finally recognizing that it has to syndicate its content out because its sites are not driving sufficient traffic and page views by themselves.
- Newspapers become a sales channel for Zillow and Zillow extends their reach and makes advertising in print newspaper classifieds sexier.
- Newspapers become a sales channel for Zillow and Zillow extends their reach and makes advertising in print newspaper classifieds sexier.
Beyond Local Listings: Can you bring real local communities online?
It’s been said that individuals today are increasingly disconnected from their communities. They are “bowling alone”; i.e., although the number of people who bowl has increased in the last 20 years, the number of people that bowl in leagues has decreased.
- The Internet has been criticized for its isolating impact on society…There is a huge market void in local online media.
- If you can somehow harness [the] knowledge, energy, and networks [of passionate citizens], you can create a vast forum of local influencers and relevant evergreen local content.
- Imagine an Internet destination that provides frequent, relevant, unique commentary about local issues, businesses, and events from dedicated and passionate members of each local community in the United States.
News is a Process, Not a Finished Product
Here is the latest in the on-going series of essays written by Terry Heaton. This piece examines a new working definition of news in the current marketplace and how media companies can (and should) adopt it as a central component of their Web content strategy.
- The Web is neatly dismantling the concept of news-as-a-finished-product by appealing to the participatory spirit and offering pieces of stories as stories themselves.
- …the reality is that the story is not the thing; the process is the thing, and the process doesn’t require the finished product. This is the secret to news on the Web…
- Younger people are the key to the future of news, and most of them aren’t even participating in “finished product news.” No time. No interest. No relevance.
- News-as-a-process is more than just theory…This is the future for those who wish to be relevant, and there’s no time like the present to get started.
Tags: consumer interaction, newspaper traditional media, online news, real estate, relevance, traffic
