There is no doubt that the UK Printing and Publishing Industry will see further declines in classified advertising because of the downturn in job vacancies, car sales and house sales. Advertisers will look for more cost effective means of advertising exacerbating the drift of classifieds to the Internet. It is estimated some 200,000 jobs are dependent on the UK newspaper press industry out of a total of around 316,000 printing jobs.

There will always be print. The internet serves as just another tool to which classifieds is ideally suited because of the length of time the ad can be online for, the low cost, the almost unlimited text and image real estate and the searchable nature of its architecture. 

Print needs to build on its core strengths. I myself do not want to read a newspaper on the Internet or on a laptop on the way to work.  A newspaper does not need a power supply, can be read in bright light, is bio-degradable, light and would not blow up if I spilt my coffee on it! Newspapers are great for reading commentary and in depth journalism and they need to build on that, increase circulation and re-appraise the classifieds conundrum