Magazines Put Classified Ads On The Internet

LONDON - Advertising-led publications are rushing to get a presence on the Internet to foil any pre-emptive strikes by new media companies, according to a report published on Tuesday in the monthly Internet Business magazine.

Allan Prosser, project manager for Eastern Counties Newspaper Group, said: "It's better that newspapers put their own classified ads on-line before someone steals your position."

Prosser is developing an Internet site for the Group that will have thousands of pages of information and classified advertising. He said: "The Internet is the right technology for classified advertising. It lends itself to fast, searchable databases and we take the old fashioned market forces view that if it's going to happen then it's going to happen and we want to be there first."

Other advertising-led publications are also developing classified advertising for the Internet. These include Auto Trader, which publishes 13 regional UK editions together with versions in France, Australia and South Africa and Estates Gazette, the world's largest property magazine.

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