Classifieds as content

The new print redesign of The Bakersfield Californian introduces many new features, including one I call “Classifieds as Content.”

The Californian’s tabloid-sized edition debuted Monday, Aug. 17, and I think brings a new vitality to the local journalism and advertising we’ve provided for more than 100 years. More space is devoted to community-generated content that’s more inclusive of the conversations, interests and concerns in our community. Some will come from our blogs, our affiliated publications and websites, and local conversations occurring on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr and the like.

But we’ve taken a step back to some degree in tapping one of the oldest sources of community-generated content: classified advertising. Beneath the many tightly written ads on any number of topics are hundreds of stories waiting to be told. As my friend and former co-worker Mary Lou Fulton has said, “Every sofa has a story.”

Pets get prominent play. The ad in the lower right is a companion to a display ad that is on the facing page immediately inside the Classified sectionWith that in mind, the back cover of our new tabloid-sized weekday paper -- we're retaining the broadsheet format on Saturday and Sunday -- is dedicated to classifieds. We’re highlighting fantastic deals, the wonderful stories behind some of the ads and tap the great reader submissions to our new Bargain Betty blog, which focuses on our classifieds and otherwise saving money by tapping great deals throughout our community.

The concept of “Classifieds as Content” is not new.

A 2002 episode of “This American Life” dived deep into several classifieds focused on a lost pet and frustrated musicians looking to form a band. But that focused more on the personalities than the classifieds themselves.

A few years ago in Bakersfield, we actually shot a prototype TV informercial built around our classifieds. We interviewed a car fanatic and a woman selling puppies among other things (I have to find the old video, because some of it is really good). The idea was to produce a monthly show that we could show on local TV to cross-promote our classifieds. It’s a great idea, but labor intensive. And expensive, when we’ve had to cut back during this sour economy.

But the spark for this latest version came one night as a sat in bed, thumbing through our 661411.com mobile site on my iPod Touch. The site had launched a few weeks before, and almost as an afterthought we tossed in a “most recently posted classifieds” feed. This was a feed the blended our online-only free and paid classifieds as well as those appearing in the newspaper as well (you can see an example here, although it may look screwy on your desktop computer) because it’s optimized for mobile.

A few weeks after launch, I started reviewing the daily traffic logs and noticed something interesting: the classifieds feed was by far the most popular category. Hmmm (insert light bulb here).

Unlike “broadsheet” newspapers -- think the old weekday Californian or The New York Times -- that have separate sections like Sports and Features and Local, tabloids have a front and back cover. TypicaYou never know what ads we'll highlight on our Classifieds coverlly the back cover is reserved for sports. However, in this day and age, why not give priority to Classifieds, which not only represent great content but are a major revenue stream under greater threat than ever from competitors like Craigslist.

Voila, we have a Classifieds cover that each weekday highlights the diversity of content our customers feel is worth more than simply dumping into the darks seas of places like Craigslist. And, by giving the content a little love and attention, we differentiate from Craigslist and the like.

It's too early to know whether our experiment will protect, let alone grow, our classified franchise, but feedback from readers has been positive. They like that their newspaper is trying something different by actually respecting content they've valued for years.