zillow.com Co-Brands With Newspapers

Online real estate marketplace zillow.com has revealed plans to launch co-branded real estate websites with 180 newspapers nationwide in the US.

The Tampa Tribune and 100 newspapers published by Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. will be among the first newspaper websites to be powered by Zillow’s search technology.

The deal gives the newspapers’ readers access to zillow.com’s search functionality, Zestimate® home values, recently sold homes, homes for sale, open house listings and local market data, on a co-branded version of zillow.com. Visitors will also be able to access all of zillow.com’s real estate community content via Zillow Advice, and mortgage rates and information from Zillow® Mortgage Marketplace.

In a statement to the press, the company said the co-branded websites extend the scope of the Zillow Newspaper Consortium formed in November 2007, whereby newspaper sales teams sell featured listings and premiere advertising inventory on zillow.com to local real estate advertisers.

The Zillow Newspaper Consortium is made up of 11 major publishing companies, including Hearst Newspapers; Media General, Inc.; The E.W. Scripps Company; MediaNews Group; Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc; Morris Communications Company; and Philadelphia Media Holdings.

“This next step of the Zillow Newspaper Consortium brings Zillow’s unique local content and data to millions of online newspaper visitors searching for real estate information,” said Lloyd Frink, Zillow president. “As our newspaper partners evolve and build out online content, we’re excited to be a key part of the process.”

“The combination of Zillow’s cutting-edge real estate technology with CNHI’s deep community relationships will help us serve local readers and businesses in exciting new ways,” said Donna Barrett, CEO of Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. “This relationship with Zillow will help cement our status as the deepest, richest source of local information in our markets.”

The first round of 101 co-branded sites launch this week, with additional sites launching throughout 2009.

It’s a move that will increase zillow.com’s reach and hits. The co-branded websites also mean zillow.com is entering the same territory trulia.com is working in, with the Trulia Publisher Platform.

zillow.com is one of the largest and fastest-growing real estate websites, with a reported 8.8 million unique visitors in March 2009. The Seattle based company has raised $87 million in funding since it was established in 2006.

Editor’s Note: The Future of Real Estate Marketing blog has an interesting discussion about the death of newspapers, and the future of real estate classifieds.

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