Newspapers in for 'bloody' days

Richard A. Smith, president of Realogy Corp., the largest brokerage company in the U.S., dropped a bomb on the newspaper industry this week when he told Bloomberg News that the Coldwell Banker and Century 21 branding budgets for newspapers will shrink by as much as two-thirds next year from 2006. (See Bloomberg's exclusive.)

The company intends to slash its newspaper advertising budget to 70 percent of its home-sale ad spend by 2010, down from 84 percent this year, Bloomberg reported, as it shifts more ad dollars online. "It's going to be bloody...The newspaper industry is going to have to adjust," Smith told Bloomberg.

The move should come as no surprise to the newspaper industry, which has struggled with waning advertising revenues in each of its classified categories -- real estate, automotive and jobs. (See Inman News special report, "Stop the presses: What the shift to online real estate means for print media.")

What is somewhat perplexing here is that while all the fingers seem to be pointing to online advertising, the print real estate magazines are still everywhere. Just last week, Homes & Land, one of the largest publishers in the niche, said it added 15 new franchises in the first half of 2007.

And Glenn Goad, EVP of Consumer Strategy for NCI (publisher of The Real Estate Book, among others) recently told Inman News the company has markets where the print books continue to grow. NCI does invest in its online offering, giving advertisers distribution of listings across the Web. The company also offers free virtual tours and is planning to release more online features in coming months.

Goad said NCI's four major Web sites -- LivingChoices.com, ApartmentFinder.com, TheRealEstateBook.com and UniqueHomes.com had a combined total of 2.4 million visits in June. Where do they come from? About half come from ads they see in the printed books, he says.

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