Revamped print classified section adds personality to content

Everyone’s stuff has a story, and telling those stories in a lighthearted, colourful way is the mission of the new Tales & Sales section of the Austin American-Statesman.

 

Austinites consider themselves and their city unique, creative, interesting, and even weird – which makes their stories particularly entertaining.

 

The section is an overhaul of the classified section and appears in the print product only, Monday through Friday. The marketing department, with support from the advertising department, produces the section, which launched on the heels of a conversion of the classified ad section from a traditional 10-column format to a six-column format. 

 

The goal of Tales & Sales is to make it a destination section for readers so people who may not usually read classifieds now turn to it for the fun content. Other newspapers have made similar efforts to combine editorial-style content around classified advertising, but the Statesman has taken it a step further with a light-hearted premise and a comic avatar named The Stuffologist — a make-believe expert in few things but a know-it-all about everything.

 

Tales & Sales has eye-popping colour, short stories, lists, games, and fun photos to showcase things readers buy or sell, the work they do, and the “stuff’ integral to their lives. Each weekday, the pages of the section are themed: 

• Wheels on Monday focuses on any aspect of the way Austinites get around, from cars and trucks to RVs, motorcycles, classic cars, and readers’ favourites.
   
• Work is the theme on Tuesdays, and the section has fun with the subject, from looking at the “dress codes” at various laid-back Austin companies to declaring someone has “The Best Job in Austin.”
   
• Wednesdays are about Homes. We detailed the ultimate fabulous shower one week and the next featured a story probing the mind of a psychology scholar leaving the suburbs for a high-rise downtown condo.
   
• Pets on Thursday gives the newspaper a great opportunity to focus on a subject near and dear to the hearts of Austinites. It’s an area traditionally lacking in newspaper coverage. One recent section offered readers a game to match pet bird breeds with the right people “personalities.” Another was a guide to the best-looking dogs to run with on the city’s popular hike and bike trail.
   
• Fridays is Stuff, and that means everything and the kitchen sink are fodder for Tales & Sales. There is a special emphasis on garage and estate sales, collections, antiques, and “other people’s stuff.”

The Stuffologist (aka editor Melissa Segrest) writes a column taking a slightly sideways angle on the theme of the day: “Consider me one part nosy neighbour, one part helpful pal, curator of curious things, and arbiter of whimsy,” she wrote. She looks for slices of life and writes about the offbeat. It is anything but boring or stuffy.

 

In addition to the lively local content, the section includes two new puzzles and two comic strips, the popular Doonesbury and the political Mallard Fillmore. In addition, we feature a wacky weekly contest. The first month’s asked readers to identify an odd looking object that appeared on the section front, then call in their answers via the Inside Line phone call-in system. The winner gets US$50.

 

Reader reaction has been positive to the section. They find the local light-hearted approach to be a refreshing change of pace.