By Jemima Kiss: It might seem unusual to choose to launch a new advertising network during a downturn, but that’s exactly what Scottish TV network STV is doing, launching stvjobs.com as part of substantial investment in online classifieds. It’s an ambitious project developed by Brighton-based specialist developers Madgex, and pitches the broadcaster directly against local newspaper giant Newsquest’s s1jobs.com; STV has even gone to the trouble of recruiting Mike Ferguson from its rival to be the network’s new head of classified at the base in Glasgow.
Newsquest, along with the rest of the UK’s local news publishers, has had some well-publicised struggles with its Glasgow-based subsidiary, the Herald Group, and will be desperate to retain its grip on the vital local jobs and classifieds market. STV is a new entrant to that market, with the reach you’d expect from a sizeable broadcaster with a weekly audience of four million but none of the legacy print business that has restricted if not the opportunity of print publishers, then certainly their imagination in developing new business streams.
As STV’s new media head Alistair Brown put it, STV can combine TV and online and is “in a unique position where we’re able to provide a viable and cost effective alternative to the current market leaders”. The network is aiming for three percent of the Scottish classified market by 2010 – a share worth £3.8 million – and has more plans to expand beyond this site and the video platform it launched last July.
There’s a suitably aggressive media campaign to launch the site which features a kind of modern-day Scottish haka. This time next year, will stv have managed to carve that chunk out of the Scottish classifieds market – and will Newsquest have suffered further as a result?
This article originally appeared in © Guardian News & Media Ltd..
Comments have been disabled for this post