Regional newspapers are still prominent marketing partners for estate agents through print supplements but the battle for online property market share is being increasingly won by pure play national sites such as Rightmove.
Now the three groups – Iliffe News and Media, Midland News Association and the Baylis Media Group – have combined resources in an attempt to launch a credible local online alternative to the market leaders.
The three groups have commissioned Collabera, technology providers behind one of the world’s largest property portals www.move.com that spans the US, to deliver the solution.
The new offering has a specification designed to match, and in some cases better, the functionality and features of the best of the national property sites. This will include a powerful back office reporting and management facility for estate agents.
The portal is in intense development with a market launch planned for early 2010. It is also being developed with white label capability to enable other regional press groups to take the solution in the future if they choose.
David Fordham (pictured), chief executive of Iliffe News and Media and current Newspaper Society President, said: “This is an exciting development that we genuinely believe will provide our estate agents with a truly competitive local alternative to the likes of Rightmove.
“We still have good and strong relationships with our estate agents through our print offerings but like so many within the regional press we lack real credibility when it comes to providing pure play property solutions for them online.
“In combining in the way we have with two like minded regional press partners we have a chance of putting together the kind of capital and intellectual investment we will need to establish that capability.
“These are difficult times for regional press and I am coming more and more to the view that our future prosperity will rely in finding more ways of coming together as an industry to find solutions for the future.”
