Los Angeles Times “Puts to Bed” the Real Estate Section
August 8th, 2008 Categories: Real Estate, Real Estate News
This really shouldn’t come as a huge surprise knowing about all the staff cutbacks that have happened at the Los Angeles Times recently, but the paper has printed its last edition of the Real Estate section. This part of the paper has been an important source of LA home information since 1901.
They’ll continue some regular columns in their new Saturday Home section and Sunday Business section, as well as put online content on their site throughout the week.
We all know that the emphasis in marketing for homes- and the corresponding advertising dollars- have gone online. Very few people are going to their local real estate pages in the paper and rely on that to find their future home. We’ve known this for awhile now.
I’d guess that the paper had the ad money for the length of time it did because when the market was booming, brokers had the cash to put into advertising that they knew wasn’t very effective just because they could. It was easier to appease sellers and continue the same old thing because it was less work that educating people about how the marketing paradigm had shifted away from print media. Now that everyone is watching their wallets much more closely, better advertising dollars are spent on being where the customers are.
Personally, I think this is unfortunate news about losing the section. Yes, anything people really want to know about, they can find online and do their research there. But in terms of replacing reporters, generating new content with depth and having the research behind feature articles, that’s pretty tough to replace with bloggers and a hodgepodge of web content.
I read this story but was not surprised. The internet has the potential to market property so much better. Although I usually pick up a real estate section when traveling out of curiosity.