• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, May 22, 2007

The online-classified land rush continued Monday with Monster Worldwide's announcement that it has signed a deal to share job listings with 80 more newspapers owned by Community Newspaper Holdings.

As part of the agreement, Monster will help the papers, many without a substantial Web presence, develop online job-search services. This represents a new variation on the online classifieds partnership model--a major online player effectively creates new inventory for itself by partnering with small community media still transitioning to the Web.

Community Newspaper Holdings owns 93 newspapers in the South, Midwest and East. The papers tend to be smaller publications serving rural areas, which have generally lagged behind in creating a robust Web presence.

The 80 new Web sites to be created in partnership with Monster will all carry both the Monster brand and the brand of the local paper. It's unclear whether Monster will assist in any other online content development around the classifieds.

The new Monster deal comes as online classified networks battle to aggregate the largest number of listings with the greatest geographic reach. The online network model for newspapers was pioneered by CareerBuilder, a joint venture between Tribune Co., McClatchy and Gannett Co. Subsequently, CareerBuilder's online competitors--Monster and Yahoo's HotJobs--began striking deals with individual newspapers and newspaper networks to offer customers the greatest volume of listings.

Monster's deals include partnerships with The New York Times Company and The Philadelphia Inquirer. In November 2006, Yahoo HotJobs made deals with MediaNews, Hearst, Scripps, Cox, Lee, Belo and the Journal Register.