Brand Republic reports that newspaper groups in the UK are seriously looking into purchasing online classified advertising websites. The property sites Rightmove and Primelocation have disclosed that they have been approached by several newspaper groups with offers.

The news follows a trend started by the Daily Mail and General Trust in 2004 when it bought Findaproperty.com. Since then Trinity Mirror and News Corp have also bought online real estate sites.

The trend comes at a time when newspapers are losing classified ad money as consumers shift to the Internet to search for and buy products. The free classified site Craigslist has been particularly menacing to newspaper classified revenues in the US.

Source: Brand Republic