MUMBAI: The ad revenues that web sites of television, radio and print companies in the US garnered grew significantly last year.
Newspapers, TV and radio station web sites they held onto half of all locally spent online advertising. Newspapers remained the leader, generating nearly $1.2 billion from their sites.
TV sites saw nearly 60 per cent revenue growth at $119 million and radio stations suddenly awakened to the opportunity in 2004, nearly doubling their Internet ad revenues at $34 million. This data is contained in a report put out by Research And Markets.
The survey included 2,177 sites operated by newspapers, TV stations, radio stations and local
pure-play companies. Another study by Research and Markets states that American recruiters are all vying for a piece of the Newspaper industry's $4.6 billion recruitment pie through online advertising.
The study notes that recruitment advertising began its cyclical recovery with 2004's improved
employment picture. Both newspapers and online media saw gains. But Internet job boards improved three times faster. Sales positions -- particularly in retail and healthcare -- are a key battleground as newspapers attempt to shore up their position against Monster's initiative to reach smaller local
businesses.
The American economy has begun to turn, and with it comes new sunlight for recruitment advertising. The unemployment rate in the US has dropped for the first time in three years, and newspaper help-wanted advertising showed a corresponding
increase. If history offers any pattern, what will follow are seven years of increases in recruitment spending. The big question, of course, is where that
spending will occur.
While all boats are rising once again on the flowing
tide, some boats are indeed rising faster. Online job boards grew nearly three times as fast as newspaper classifieds in 2004. The battleground remains with non-managerial positions in the Small and
Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Two million of the estimated 13 million SMEs advertise in newspapers, and they have remained loyal to the helpwanted section. In 18 months, Monster has been able to convert almost 10 per cent of the SME category to online. The battle wages on. Pricing has begun to drop, making the job boards more alluring to price-conscious newspaper advertisers
in smaller markets.
Migration has already occurred in the sales-recruitment category, where recruiters devoting more dollars to the job boards. Other non-
managerial categories remain squarely in the newspaper domain. The road ahead is tough for the job boards and newspapers alike. Recruiters are spending $1.5 billion on their own sites in 2004, more than they're spending with the job boards. Corporate sites have become more sophisticated in the past two years as they add features that mimic those of the major job boards. Job seekers can now go directly to an employer's Web site and search available jobs, apply, or file a resume for future job
openings.
Newspapers still dominate this category in overall revenue. Online job boards generated about $1.3 billion in 2004, about one-fourth of the $4.6
billion that traditional newspaper advertising generated. Even if online recruitment revenues continued to grow and newspaper revenues remained flat, it would take a 30 per cent annual increase in online recruitment spending
(nearly twice the current rate of growth) over the next six years for it to reach the same level as newspapers.
