Getting local: Zillow and MySpace

Posted by Helena Deards on April 2, 2009 at 10:23 AM

Real estate web site Zillow has announced its own way of helping out local newspapers in the US. Zillow will be lending its real estate search engine to local news sites, and will share revenue produced with the newspapers whilst simultaneously extending its reach into local markets.

Spencer Rascoff, chief operating officer of Zillow.com believes that people have been too quick to write newspapers off for dead - "readying their obituaries is very premature," he says. "Real estate is the most local product there is," Rascoff continues, "It would take us decades to build those local relationships. Rather than starting from scratch, we're partnering with someone who has distribution, but don't have the product."

Also taking advantage of the market for local news is MySpace. The News Corp owned social networking site will unveil MySpace Local this month, which will feature business listings for local businesses, which will also be sorted into 'city hubs'. The move will allow MySpace to further profit from locally targeted advertising.

If these two companies see such potential in local news, should local newspapers be more aware of the assets which they already hold? Zillow in particular has seen the benefits of the targeted reader base which local newspapers and news sites command, and has utilised it to boost its own business. With US local newspapers in a tough economic situation at the moment, could we see more such partnerships in the future?

Source: New York Times, Media Week