Oodle powering Canwest properties’ classifieds
Ad aggregator-indexer Oodle will soon be powering all of Canwest’s general classifieds, providing a seamless platform across the media giant’s properties, which include newspapers such as National Post and The Vancouver Sun, major portal Canada.com, entertainment site Dose.ca and GoLocal directories.
The deal gives consumers and advertisers a reach that stretches across Canada in a single interface. And while it doesn’t provide the platform technology, Oodle also indexes Canwest’s auto site, Driving.ca, property portal HouseHunting.ca and recruitment site Working.com.
“What Oodle and Canwest can do together is deliver the best of everything Canadians are looking for in a classified-search experience,” said Graham Moysey, SVP and GM of Canwest Publishing, Digital Media. “This brings together the Canwest advantage both for consumers looking for local listings and advertisers that want to talk to them directly.”
Several sites are already live:
– Times Colonist in Victoria(http://victoriatimescolonist.oodle.com )
– The Vancouver Sun (http://vancouversun.oodle.com )
– The Province in Vancouver (http://vancouverprovince.oodle.com )
– Calgary Herald (http://calgaryherald.oodle.com )
– Edmonton Journal (http://edmontonjournal.oodle.com )
– The Star Phoenix in Saskatoon (http://saskatoonstarphoenix.oodle.com )
– Leader Post in Regina (http://reginaleaderpost.oodle.com )
– The Gazette in Montreal (http://montrealgazette.oodle.com )
– Ottawa Citizen (http://ottawacitizen.oodle.com )
– The Windsor Star (http://windsorstar.oodle.com )and
– Canada.com (http://canadaclassifieds.oodle.com.
National Post’s platform is live, but not yet linked. Dose.ca’s site will be up soon.
“We are thrilled to be working with Canwest to bring together its depth of local listings in an even better way for both consumers and advertisers,” said Craig Donato, CEO of Oodle. “Canada.com visitors will also benefit from the extensive Oodle.com network with their free ads now automatically posted to our partner sites including Lycos, Local.com and MySpace.”
Canwest Global Communications Corp. is Canada’s largest media company and largest publisher of paid English-language daily papers. It also owns the Global Television Network and owns (or holds substantial interests) in conventional television, out-of-home advertising, specialty cable channels, web sites and radio stations and networks in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Turkey, Indonesia, Singapore, the U.K. and the U.S.
Analyst downgrades Canwest
Canwest is in deep trouble, says TD Newcrest, a Canadian advisory firm. With advertising down at its newspapers and earnings from its Australian TV network slumping, TD analyst Scott Cuthberson downgraded his rating for the company from “speculative buy” to “reduce” and dropped his 12-month price target from $3.50 to $1.00.
In a note to clients, Cuthberson couldn’t have been more blunt: “Given that the equity value has been virtually wiped out and considering the poor visibility of the future value of the company … we have reached a point where the risk/reward does not work for us.”
Cuthberson went on: “We expect the fundamental environment for Canwest to be very challenging for the foreseeable future. We doubt that online products can grow fast enough or large enough to offset expected declines in the legacy businesses.”
Paramount among Canwest’s problems, says TD Newcrest, is its 56 percent holding in Australian broadcaster Ten Network Holdings. The network’s share price has slumped 51 percent this year from a net asset value of $1.14 billion to $525 million.
Canwest owns the Canadian television network Global Television Network and the national newspaper National Post among others. Canwest is Canada’s largest newspaper publisher;
Despite the problems, Cuthbertson said the firm should “continue as a going concern.” Although it has $3.7 billion in debt, that won’t mature until 2012.
- Zillow Introduces Zillow Partnership Platform
- HomeFinder.com Launches 2012 Agent Makeover Sweepstakes
- Quick Response Codes made available for Classified Liners with AdPerfect Classified Advertising Solution Release 2.9
- Audi, Chevrolet, and Volkswagen Rate Highest in Automotive Advertising ‘Best Practices’ With Messages of Efficiency and Innovation
- Yahoo! Names Fred Amoroso Chairman and Appoints Ross Levinsohn Interim CEO
- Tweet It, Like It, Watch It, Buy It. Leo Burnett/Arc Worldwide’s New Study Finds 95 Million Americans Use Social Media To Shop
- Working Moms Taking Less Maternity Leave, CareerBuilder’s Annual Mother’s Day Survey Finds
- TheHomePage.com.au launches Chinese listings
- planetRE Launches Cutting Edge Online Marketing and Transaction Tools for Property Rentals and Management
- Groupon Merchant Satisfaction Beats Industry Benchmarks
