MSNBC.com to Launch Comprehensive Classifieds
Partnerships with industry leaders create single source for consumer connections
MSNBC.com, a leader in breaking news and original journalism on the Internet, announced the creation of MSNBC Classifieds (Classifieds.MSNBC.com), a comprehensive online trading post rivaling the combined print classifieds of newspapers nationwide. Beginning today, users will visit MSNBC.com to not only read their news at MSNBC.com, but also browse online classifieds in five categories: Jobs, Real Estate, Cars, Personals, Travel and Merchandise.
With such high-profile partners as CareerBuilder.com, Cars.com, eBay, HomeGain.com, Match.com and Expedia., the new MSNBC.com classifieds are positioned to offer users unparalleled access to the Internet economy, all from a single source. At the same time, partner companies gain additional exposure to MSNBC’s broad audience base.
“MSNBC.com continues to build its brand as the one of the top sources for news online,” said Charlie Tillinghast, General Manager and Publisher of MSNBC.com “The classifieds are one area of print news that has not yet made the boundary-free leap to the Internet. MSNBC classifieds will let users quickly search the entire Internet community, not just their own backyards.”
MSNBC Classifieds are accessible from MSNBC.com left navigation. With national sources, MSNBC Classifieds bring near limitless consumer and personal connection opportunities to a wide market. First step in providing an user experience integrating personally relevant classifieds as part of every day news reading.
“Bringing giants like CareerBuilder, Cars.com, eBay, HomeGain, Match.com and Expedia together allows us to provide our users with a one-stop shop on the web,” Tillinghast added. “We are the only national news source of our kind to offer access to classifieds across numerous subject areas.”
Online trading and personal introduction services have seen tremendous growth in recent years with companies such as eBay and Match.com leading the way. A recent CareerBuilder.com survey shows that 47 percent of hiring managers plan to increase employment at their locations in the third quarter while one-in-ten workers plan to change jobs. According to J.D. Power and Associates a record 70% of new car buyers and 54% of used car buyers are going online.
The initiative creates a new revenue channel for MSNBC.com, which marked its entry into profitability in its fourth quarter of 2004 on the strength of brand advertising sales.