Catalano’s ACM expands partnership with property portal Realestateview including advertising packages and shared marketing services
Antony Catalano’s Australian Community Media (ACM) is now offering real estate agents and vendors packages which span print advertising and a listing on national property portal Realestateview.com.au.
The publisher said it was an important step in Catalano’s “ambitious digital property strategy”.
Catalano is ‘closing the loop’ on real estate advertising
Catalano sits on the board of Realestateview.com.au and along with ACM co-owner Alex Waislitz now has the largest interest in the platform. Earlier this year, he rolled out the Today Acquire digital marketing platform in Sydney and Newcastle, which helps vendors find buyers.
In addition, ACM’s chief marketing officer, Paul Tyrrell, will now oversee marketing activity for Realestateview.com.au.
Back in 2019 when Catalano purchased the 160-plus ACM regional mastheads from Nine, there was speculation he could use the assets, as well as his stake in property media agency Tomorrow, to launch a wider property listings play.
At the time, he denied his ambitions were to take on Domain – Nine’s property portal and his former employer.
He told Mumbrella that suggestions he has eyes on another real estate portal are unsubstantiated, and insisted he wanted to continue to work with Domain, and its majority owner, Nine.
“Why would I have my own real estate play when I’ve got a clearly defined partnership which includes promotion with the Nine Network for the next three years?,” he said 14 months ago.
He did, however, concede that he had always wanted to close the loop on real estate advertising.
“I actually thought at one time that Fairfax should actually buy advertising agencies in the real estate space [to] close the loop. Then you could independently advise your clients – imagine if Fairfax or Domain could have owned Tomorrow [the media agency Catalano has a stake in], but also sent money to REA [Domain’s rival]? You’re in the group, you’re in the network, you nurture the circle of interest in the category,” he told Mumbrella.
Now, ACM will offer bundles across Victoria’s The Courier in Ballarat and the Bendigo Advertiser, as well as the Illawarra Mercury in News South Wales, and the Redland City Bulletin in outer Brisbane in partnership with the portal.
A listing on Realestateview.com.au
Catalano said he was excited to round out the ACM property suite in this way.
“Combining print, Realestateview.com.au and off-portal marketing tools such as Today Acquire allows agents and vendors a one-stop shop for property media that targets buyers at all stages of their purchase cycle,” he said.
The portal’s CEO, Toby Balazs, said he was excited to be expanding its relationship with ACM.
“The combined talent of the groups has allowed us to seamlessly integrate into the ACM sales process and I look forward to seeing the results,” he said.
“Helping agents find buyers at manageable costs is one of our core pillars, and we look forward to working with the ACM team to roll this out to new markets across the country.”
topics
ACM
Alex Waislitz
Antony Catalano
Australian Community Media
digital real estate marketing platform
newspapers
Paul Tyrrell
real estate
realestateview.com.au
regional media
regional publishing
Toby Balazs
I really do admire the effort by The Cat and Tobes, but realestateview will never come remotely close to REA’s national presence, in both its reach among users and presence within the agent community.
The only agents taking this up are the ones that grumble every year at REA’s annual sub cost rising and then grumble harder when the local print alternative (ACM) and the challenger product (realestateview) don’t deliver.
I’ve been in the rooms with these franchise directors and have been privvy to these conversations.
Again, good vision, but wont work in practice.
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Imagine, says Catalano. Yes. Imagine what would have happened if a media company bought real estate agents.
What Catalano means to say is that his deals have put agents in a conflict. Do they advertise to help sell a property or to make money out of Domain etc? I think we know the answer.
Of course, no one thinks of real estate agents as the arbiters of ethics. But Catalano’s thinking is based on monopoly extraction, not competitive value. The more he chases the spot light the more obvious are his motives.
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Totally agree!
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