Radio Newest Competitor In Online Classifieds

It's official: everyone wants a piece of online classifieds. The latest competitor to throw a hat in the ring is Citadel Interactive and ABC Radio Networks, both divisions of Citadel Broadcasting.

The radio companies join local TV broadcasters that have already set up shop with online classifieds. All this cross-platform action is more bad news for newspapers, which have been counting on classifieds as they struggle to rebuild profit centers online.

On Tuesday, Citadel and ABC announced the creation of a new online classifieds site for ethnic recruitment, IHaveADreamJob.com, in partnership with RegionalHelpWanted.com.

According to the companies, the soft launch of the site has already attracted 70,000 job listings and 100,000 resumes. The new site mostly targets black and Hispanic job seekers. To reach them, ABC is promoting the site through its urban and Hispanic format stations.

Television has already plunged into the online classifieds rumble. Over the last year, CBS, NBC, and Young Broadcasting have all beefed up their online classifieds. There's also competition from third-party companies. In April, Internet Broadcasting Systems, a national network of local NBC affiliates, struck a deal with Monster.com to share online recruitment listings in 108 markets. Under the terms of the deal, Monster.com is powering co-branded career mini-sites for 120 existing station sites.

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These sites are being heavily promoted with TV ad spots provided by the stations, as well as ads on the Internet. IBS also publishes Web sites for stations owned by Hearst-Argyle, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Post-Newsweek, Cox Television, Meredith Broadcasting, Scripps and Morgan Broadcasting.

After earning $158 million in classifieds revenue in 2006, Borrell Associates forecasts TV's share rising to $253 million in 2007.

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