CareerBuilder
800.891.8880
www.careerbuilder.com

It seems like just yesterday that the likes of Monster.com and Dice.com were going to put newspaper recruitment advertising out of business.

Today, that doesn’t appear to be so likely. Although rival online employment sites have made inroads - thanks to their ability to share resources and capitalize on the strengths of their networks - newspapers are fighting back.

One of the strongest newspaper-backed efforts is CareerBuilder, the job recruitment service backed by industry heavyweights Gannett Co. Inc., Knight Ridder Inc. and Tribune Co. The service is available to readers of more than 144 newspapers, including USA Today, the Chicago Tribune and the Kansas City (Mo.) Star.

The beginnings

CareerBuilder traces its roots to 1995, when its technology was first developed by a company called NetStart Inc.

In 1997, the company launched TeamBuilder Online, which was among the first browser-based recruitment applications available. One year later, NetStart renamed itself CareerBuilder Inc. and relaunched itself with 16 media partners.

At the same time, a second group of newspapers pooled their employment advertising resources and launched CareerPath. In 2000, Knight Ridder and Tribune bought CareerPath and merged the service with CareerBuilder. By September 2001, the CareerBuilder name was branding the employment sections of more than 40 Tribune and Knight Ridder newspapers.

Later that same year CareerBuilder took steps to enhance its capabilities, snapping up Headhunter.net for some $200 million.

“We liked their product a lot,” said Craig Besant, vice president of Tribune Classified Services. “Their reporting technology, in terms of being able to give feedback that both job seekers and employers were looking for,  was good. It was a superior platform in that respect, and it was a lot easier to customize to (our) different needs and to make changes.”

Last October, Gannett became the third investor in CareerBuilder, purchasing one-third interest for an undisclosed sum.

Next step

With ownership shuffles now behind it, CareerBuilder is ready to focus on enhancing its capabilities, said Besant.

One important area is how member newspapers can integrate their print and online recruitment advertising. New technologies are changing how that’s done.

“Early last year we were doing a lot of the ‘fries with a burger’ approach,” he said. “Let’s say in Chicago if you were to buy a print ad for a couple hundred dollars, for $50 you would add the online ad for a week. Toward the end of last year we worked towards developing [a service option called] FlexAd, which integrates the two. Now, if you buy a 10-line ad in print, and you also buy an unlimited ad online for 30 days, there’s a Web ID number in the print ad, which allows you to type that in and get the unlimited-length ad on the Internet.”

Besant said FlexAd gives employers an opportunity to create more robust online ads while giving the job seeker the chance to apply directly from the Web site.

E-commerce technology supplied to CareerBuilder by AdStar Inc., meanwhile, makes it possible for employers to purchase recruitment ads either through the phone or through CareerBuilder’s Web site.

“We’ve invested heavily in AdStar in a couple of different rounds,” said Besant. “We did that primarily to obtain this e-commerce interface that would allow employers or recruiters to go directly online and buy these FlexAds.”

Sales divided

Although CareerBuilder maintains its own sales force, much of the sales groundwork remains the responsibility of the member newspaper.

Typically, for large accounts, a CareerBuilder rep would try to sell an online-only ad while the newspaper rep would pitch print-only or integrated products such as FlexAds. For smaller accounts, CareerBuilder fields an inside sales team that places calls to businesses that haven’t advertised with the newspaper for the past six months.

Besant, who joined CareerBuilder from Monster.com parent TMP Worldwide, said CareerBuilder competes best with online-only entities in terms of service and local brand awareness.

“When we say a 10-line ad plus 30 days online is $360, it’s not a coincidence that Monster’s open rate is $305. We want to be close to them, being a major player in the industry, but we’re not competing on price per se. We think we do offer more value being (available in) both print and online. We like the leverage of the newspaper name in the local markets.”

Diversifying options

CareerBuilder also plans to separate itself from the online-only sites by offering a database service aimed at filling skilled and hourly positions.

Clearly, Besant said, there’s a market for the other half of the employment base. More than 50 percent of employment ads running in Tribune’s Newsday, for example, are seeking people to fill such positions, he said.

“Traditionally only large companies could buy the product,” said Besant. “We’re making it bite-sized so that medium-sized or small employers can have access to that database for a relatively small amount of money. We think that’s going to change the way that those small employers look for employees and vice versa.”

That said, Besant said the biggest challenge for CareerBuilder won’t come from how the company is now structured or the services it offers. Instead, CareerBuilder’s future will largely be staked to how quickly the national employment picture brightens.

“We really haven’t seen an uptick yet,” he said. “In terms of our revenue year-over-year we’ve certainly seen a flattening out of the print side, as opposed to the online side, which has grown.”

Regional differences will also affect the bottom line. Where Chicago has been slow to recover, Besant said two Florida markets - Orlando and Fort Lauderdale - have “rebounded quite nicely.”