There was once a time when Monster.com’s agenda to transform the way employers and job seekers connected went largely unchallenged. Then along came CareerBuilder.com, backed by a group of powerful newspapers unwilling to cede their recruitment advertising business to the Monster phenomenon.
Now, apparently in a bid to compete with a powerhouse CareerBuilder and grow its own bottom line, Monster has entered a new strategic alliance with the new owner of The Philadephia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, and philly.com, which serve the interests of corporate recruiters and job seekers in the nation’s fourth largest metro area.
The deal with Philadelphia Media Holdings LLC represents Monster’s first such alliance with a major-market media company. It also portends direct competition with CareerBuilder to sign-on more newspaper partners as recruitment advertising managers at many news dailies look for ways to buffer and bolster revenue and attract more subscribers.
In a statement, Monster indicated “the new alliance exemplifies Monster Worldwide’s corporate strategy to grow Monster via multiple distribution channels and reflects Philadelphia Media Holdings’ commitment to leverage and expand the revenue base of its media properties.”
A soon-to-be-launched, co-branded job search and recruitment website will combine the Monster brand and product portfolio with the audience of Philadelphia’s largest circulation daily newspapers and number one website. It promises to deliver more recruitment tools and services to Philadelphia-area employers and a broader array of potential employment opportunities to job seekers there.
The website is scheduled to debut August 14 and will give Philadelphia-area employers the opportunity to access Monster’s resume database, which attracts more than 40,000 new resumes each day. The new partners to the deal believe their alliance will provide Philadelphia-area job seekers with a more compelling, one-stop shopping job search experience.
Philadelphia Media Holdings, LLC, a private investment group led by Brian P. Tierney, was formed in 2006 for the purpose of acquiring the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News, philly.com and related online assets. The diverse group includes civic, labor and corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, and private investors who share a commitment to high quality, locally owned journalism.