WCAA 2008 Portland, Oregon The CLASSIFIED REALITY Making Difficult Changes to

1. WCAA 2008 Portland, Oregon The CLASSIFIED REALITY Making Difficult Changes to Adapt to the New Realities of Classified Presented by: Mike Rutigliano, Vice President – Classified Digital Media, Sept 8, 2008

2. Newspaper Classified • Classified business is at a tipping point • The research and data is conclusive; our business has changed ~ time is not on our side • The sky is not falling ~ The future is exciting, it is all about how we adapt to these changes! • Commitment is paramount – all stakeholders, publishers, VP’s, classified professionals, need to embrace change and transition

3. The Changing Landscape

4. The Changing Landscape

5. Local Search and Classified • Local Search and Local classified is an integral part of any local strategy, • Listing and Search are the 2 fastest growing online business opportunities

6. The world has changed Canadian Classifieds Ad Counts YOY ad count decreases are expected to continue as listings become commodities and are available for free online • Over 90% of all classifieds listings NO LONGER run in newspapers Revenue

7. US Newspaper Performance

8. Online Canadian Classified Marketplace 4.9 million 2006 classified buyers growing to 11.9 million by 2009 Classified buyers Classified sellers 2.3 million 2006 classified sellers growing to 5.6 million by 2009

9. Craigslist and Kijiji Examples

10. The Facts • The print classified marketplace is out of balance –newspapers have lost over 90% of all listings ads to online, yet most of us still garner the majority of the revenue – we have the sales channels • Advertisers are questioning their ROI and have migrated online • The print market is at a tipping point, without embracing an integrated multi media strategy, media companies (newspapers) revenues will continue to shrink • The internet has fundamentally transformed classifieds • Overall classified spending is expected to remain strong • Local search and classified listings are expecting big growth

11. Ideas for Change

12. Things you need to think about • Classified listings – a critical mass of listings is a key success factor to expand your marketplace • Focus on Local and integrated – we are the voice of our communities with significant reach and we need to leverage this strength and do a better job of “telling” our story, people use more than one media, and we need to remind our employees and advertisers that “integrated” works. • Adding value and exposure – for both consumers and advertisers. “the model of increasing prices and delivering “less for more” is no longer viable, we need to embrace the fact our advertisers have many choices and we need to deliver more value • Re-structure our business – Enact cultural and organizational change moving from an order taking environment to a sales machine, invest in our people, process, products and TRAINING! • Technology – technology is an enabler of change, embrace your 3rd party patters that integrate with your core business, provide more sellables, and increase your product portfolio

13. Ideas for change • Organize around the “category pillars” holistically – become specialists and consultants in the Automotive, Recruitment, Real Estate, and General SME categories • Embrace a multi-media brand relationship with consumers that capitalizes on YOUR LOCAL community strategy • Re-capture the listings market - cannibalizing yourselves before others do it • Move to a customer-centric sales model become a “one-stop” supplier for advertisers across all media • Become a leader in reverse publishing and syndication to provide value to advertisers, consumers, and new revenue opportunities • Online is an opportunity – use an integrated approach that offers more

14. Integrated Branding – Give consumers choice, make it easy!

15. Social Networking – Leverage and Embrace

16. Get Creative with your Print Product • Editorial content • Online branding • Reverse-published blog • Online “look and feel” • Prominent URL placement

17. Increase Value For All Advertisers & Add Classified listings • The Goals: • Increase in ad count • Propensity to drive in leads • Value Added proposition for the advertiser

18. Deal with your Sales Issues • Invest in Training and teach your people how to sell, outbound call, and “online only” • Outbound versus inbound • Create KPI’s to measure success – hold people accountable • Reward the sharing of knowledge & best practices • Organize by channel, specialize to become experts, and compete to win • Improve tracking and reporting • Flexibility, move from a culture of “no” to a culture of “yes” • Attitude, attitude, attitude!

19. Organize Effectively – Alignment like a laser! • Embrace cultural and organizational change to position your paper the future • Provide a foundation of Strategy, Structure, and Leadership • Moving from an order taking environment to a sales machine • Engage your highly skilled people and make them accountable for results • Alignment of your print and online divisions that links individuals as part of the same team • Change your attitude - Play to win! • THANK YOU – QUESTIONS?