The classified revolution

Noël Wickland

Discusses how classified advertising developed during the past 25 years. It rose from a sixth of total adspend in 1964 to over a quarter in 1988, largely as a result of new sales methods.

The Classified Revolution

Nol Wickand

Dr. Johnson, in one of his non-lexicographical moments, said of advertising that it had reached such a state of advancement that it was hard to imagine how it might be improved. He was talking, in effect, about classified advertising. There was not, at the time, any other kind to talk about. Creativity, to the advertisers of the mid-eighteenth century, meant setting out their copy in a way which made interesting, even meaningful, patterns on the page – an intelligent use of white space which the newspapers, determined even then to control the one percentage point...

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