Newspapers of all sizes are looking to suture their print ad revenue wounds while building their online presence.

Web site CoolerAds.com said it has the tools to give newspapers that chance to bridge that gap through its menu of classified, local search and social networking features.

The three-year-old site, backed by Budd Lake, N.J.-based Kaesu Inc., counts as clients more than 95 community newspapers, according to Joe Nicastro, CoolerAds.com’s co-founder.

“Initially CoolerAds.com was designed to function as a classified network. It was our answer to Craigslist for community papers,” he said. “We started out with a classified program where users can upload their ads and take ads online — generally functions that most programs offer.”

But the site evolved into something a lot more sophisticated, which Nicastro said can handle the online classifieds section of any size newspaper.

Among the features: the ability for marketers to place classified ads online and in print, in multiple newspapers, with one buy.

“With the market for print and online classifieds easily surpassing $20 billion annually, we have the opportunity to build a strong business helping publishers retain and grow their portion of the local ad market,” Nicastro said.

Last month, CoolerAds.com bolstered its site with the addition of display ad archiving and distribution.

 

In the beginning

Gary L. Godfrey, president and publisher of Ohio-based Arens Publications, said he uses CoolerAds.com’s platform to meet the new online challenges facing his organization.

Godfrey said that adopting the CoolerAds.com platform was initially difficult because the terminology and methodology used was foreign.

“Publishers have their own jargon, and it was like being a fish out of water,” he said. “But through the years, with patience and suggestions, the CoolerAds platform is as simple as reading the screen.”

Godfrey said CoolerAds.com allows his customers to place ads based on their schedule and what they want to sell.

“I can’t believe when customers select their own ads, enhancements and number of weeks — they always select more than just calling an ad in by telephone,” he said. “The newest addition is report tabs which tell the publisher when someone new comes to the site.”

With all the free classified alternatives available to consumers, Godfrey said it’s important for publishers to realize that times have changed.

 “We either get into the game or get out,” he said. “Just look at the circulation numbers of the big dailies — they keep going down and down.”

 

Pushing membership

The Mid-Atlantic Community Newspaper Association, meantime, last year began promoting the use of CoolerAds.com to its 50-strong membership. So far, 11 papers have signed up, said Alyse Mitten, MACPA’s executive director.

The organization includes weeklies and community papers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, reaching more than 6 million subscribers. About 1 million have access to CoolerAds.com.

Mitten said MACPA is promoting CoolerAds.com as a way for its member papers to pursue classified ad revenue lost to free sites like Craigslist.

“CoolerAds.com is a complement to our publications because it provides the younger reader or advertiser with a local venue for advertising their products,” she said. “The people that are going to come onto the Web sites are going to see all the ads from participating publications, but the ones they are most interested in will be from their local publications.”

The association is offering monetary incentives to entice newspapers to sign on to the program.

Mitten said CoolerAds provides the community papers with a Web presence they may not have been able to offer before.