By: Jennifer Saba On Monday the Chicago Tribune made an audacious move -- at least where newspapers are concerned -- with the announcement that starting Jan. 22 it will completely overhaul its
print help-wanted classifieds.
The paper is one of the first metros to make a big push to the Web while at the same time keeping its lucrative Sunday help-wanted section intact.
"We needed to radically retool print," said Ellen Glassberg, director of recruitment advertising at the Chicago Tribune. "We needed an aggressive response and to tie it very closely to online."
Help-wanted ads appear everyday in the classified section of the paper as it stands now. Next week, the paper unveils a new classified strategy where it will list only the position, company, location and a Web identification that drives readers to find more information about the job online at CareerBuilder.
The "QuickFind" listing will run in the Business section on Tuesdays only as opposed to everyday in the classified section (which will still carry real estate, auto and other classifieds). The Tuesday business section will expand by three to four pages.
The idea was to put help-wanted ads in front of targeted readers on a day heavy with business news.
For its Sunday CareerBuilder section, the Tribune is ditching its agate listings for a four-column ad format with the expectation that the section will expand by a third. Pricing will be based on ad size. The Sunday help-wanted ads will feature the job title, location, contact information, Web ID and space for some text in order to maintain a uniform look.
Glassberg noted that lion's share of help-wanted ads run in the Sunday paper. For the same amount of money for a Sunday ad, she explains, a company now gets a listing in the Tuesday paper.
"We did this for a number of reasons but mostly we wanted to enhance the help-wanted offerings for a better product and much better reference," said Glassberg, who added the other classified sections are under consideration for a makeover.
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