Friday, April 14, 2006

Google Local Hires Classified Ad Veteran

Google Local recently hired Sam Sebastian to help the search engine form, er, improve relationships with newspapers.


Seems to make sense. Bring the guy who knows the ins and outs of newspaper classified ads to the search engine. But, it's a slipperly slope. Sebastian's knowledge could end up threatening newspapers instead of building bridges.


Sebastian's hiring isn't the first time an Internet portal or search engine have hired newspaper veterans. Yahoo! made the news years ago when it picked Dan Finnigan to run Hot Jobs. Formerly with Knight Ridder Digital, Finnigan went to Hot Jobs after rebuilding Career Builder.

Other professionals have made the shift from newspaper industry to the online world. Unfortunately for newspapers, the reverse doesn't seem to be true. You don't see a lot of search engine folks lining up at newspapers.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This seems to hit on the idea that newspapers are losing market shares to other mediums. The problems seems to be that there was/is a code of ethics in the paper business that hasn't seem to take hold in the new mediums that are gaining market shares.

I think rather than fight the shift in toward new delivery methods, which is inevitable, the focus should be on why ethics seem to be so lacking in other formats.

Any ideas why?

MMF