Classified ad creation and syndication provider vFlyer has announced a number of technical upgrades in a new “vFlyer Agency Edition.”
What’s interesting to me about it is that vFlyer now is doing/trying to do for newspaper classifieds what the local SEM firms such as WebVisible and Marchex are doing for yellow pages publishers (WebVisible also works with newspapers):
vFlyer Agency helps sales teams, within newspaper advertising departments and other organizations, leverage professional-looking landing pages and automated syndication feeds to an array of online marketplaces, including Google Base, Yahoo Classifieds, Trulia, Zillow, Oodle, Vast, as well as providing Craigslist and eBay compatible HTML to maximize exposure to their online ad or marketing campaigns.
It thus potentially turns the newspaper into an “agency” for local realtors and brokers who want a “one stop shop” to advertise their listings.
This syndication/aggregation (network) model is being duplicated up and down the “food chain” online but especially in local, because of the fragmentation of eyeballs and the fact that everyone needs more traffic.
Marchex’s partner announcement yesterday was another example of this phenomenon.
Screenwerk 
April 23, 2008 at 1:32 pm
it looks like the only way both sides can win.
May 8, 2008 at 5:09 pm
[…] industry analyst Greg Sterling focused on vFlyer impact on the publishing industry with his post vFlyer Turns Newspapers into ‘Agencies’. Greg […]
July 6, 2008 at 10:24 pm
This is ancient technology. I want my social networks to do the work for me.