How News Publishers Make Money From Job Listings

Quick Answer

News publishers make money from jobs by charging employers to post, selling featured placement and multi-post packages, bundling job posts into the advertising they already sell, and, where direct sales are thin, earning per click on jobs supplied by partner networks. The publishers who do best treat the jobs section as ad inventory sold to their existing advertisers, not as a job site competing with Indeed.

What Happened to Job Classifieds

In 2000, US newspapers took in $19.6 billion from classified advertising, and $8.7 billion of it was recruitment advertising, according to the Newspaper Association of America (MediaPost). Classifieds were about 40% of newspaper ad revenue that year (MinnPost).

By 2009, recruitment advertising was a tenth of what it had been in 2000 (Poynter). Job sites and free listings did to help-wanted ads what they did to every other classified category: they were cheaper, searchable, and not limited to one city's print edition.

Many newspapers kept a jobs section online by handing it to a partner, first large job sites and later white-label networks. That kept a tab in the navigation but often gave away the brand, the pricing and the relationship with the employer. We compare that trade-off in running your own jobs section versus joining a job network.

Why Jobs Are Worth Another Look

Three things have changed since publishers gave up on jobs.

• Distribution is free. Since Google launched its job search in June 2017, any site that marks up its listings with JobPosting structured data can appear in it, in the countries where it is available. A publisher no longer needs a job site's traffic to get listings seen.
• Boards no longer start empty. Job imports from careers sites and feeds can fill a local or specialist board on day one, so readers find something useful before a single employer has paid.
• Local and niche audiences are back. Independent local newsletters and trade publications have built audiences that general job sites do not reach well, and local businesses already pay them to reach those readers.

Six Ways a Publisher Earns From Jobs

Most publishers combine the first four. Paid posts and featured upgrades are what employers expect; packages and bundles are where the money is, because they sell to advertisers you already have. Pay-per-click income from partner feeds fills the gap while direct sales grow, and paid access for job seekers rarely fits a news audience.

The bundle deserves the most attention. An advertiser who already buys a banner or a newsletter slot can add job posts to the same order, which is the easiest sale a publisher will ever make. Our guide on selling job ads to businesses that already sponsor you has an example rate card.

What Publishers Charge Today

Across the boards running on Kardow, the median paid job post is 99 in the board's own currency, and most sell between 49 and 99. That covers news sites, local newsletters, trade media and independent boards, in several currencies. Specialist publications charge more, because their readers cannot be reached anywhere else.

The price of a single post matters less than how many you sell to the same employer. A hospital, a school district or a council that hires every month is worth a yearly plan, often paid by invoice.

Run It Yourself or Hand It to a Partner

There are two ways to have a jobs section. A job network or white-label partner hosts it for you, supplies the jobs, and usually shares revenue, which costs little up front but leaves the pricing and the employer relationship with the partner. Running your own, on job board software, costs a monthly fee but keeps the brand, the prices and every employer relationship with you.

Neither is right for everyone. We laid out both honestly, including when a network is the better call, in run your own jobs section or join a job network.

How to Start

1. Count the advertisers you already have who are hiring. That is your first market.
2. Launch the board on your own domain, filled with imported jobs for your area or field.
3. Set a single-post price, a featured upgrade and one bundle with your existing ads.
4. Add a jobs link to your navigation and a jobs block to your newsletter.
5. Offer the bundle to your advertisers, and send each buyer their results when the post ends.

If your publication is outside the US, languages, currencies and invoicing change the setup. We cover those in job board software for publishers outside the US.

Frequently Asked Questions