It has never been easier to find a real bargain – or even a job – in SA, thanks to a new digital partnership between publisher Tiso Blackstar Group and Gumtree, the country's most popular online marketplace.

Tiso Blackstar is one of SA's biggest digital publishers, with titles including the Sunday Times, TimesLIVE, SowetanLIVE and BusinessLIVE, while Gumtree has been helping South Africans buy and sell just about anything under the sun since 2005. 

Between them, these two power brands attract a monthly audience of roughly 10m website visitors in SA.

Readers of TimesLIVE and SowetanLIVE can now click through to Gumtree with ease, thanks to a conveniently placed link in the navigation bars of these websites.

Both websites now also feature Gumtree search boxes on their home pages and selected section and article pages, where readers can quickly choose a classifieds category to search – relating to vehicles, jobs, or sports and leisure – and specify their location to see a range of matching Gumtree ads.

The deal will generate additional revenue for Tiso Blackstar, which already offers its clients opportunities for tailormade advertising campaigns and sponsored content in focus areas such as business, personal finance, entertainment and fashion.

“There is a real opportunity in providing editorial context to classifieds, as research shows a greater propensity to buy when a reader is in a trusted environment,” said Andrew Trench, group editorial director at Tiso Blackstar.

Tiso Blackstar and Gumtree will analyse data gained from the new campaign to understand how modern-day digital readers use classified ads and to make it even easier to connect buyers and sellers via Tiso Blackstar's news websites.

“This is a great opportunity to access new shoppers and audiences, as well as to bring a previously lost revenue opportunity back to publishers," said Claire Cobbledick, general manager of Gumtree SA.

Tiso Blackstar's head of digital, Lisa MacLeod, said the credibility of the group's long-established media brands was critical.

“We are really excited about this partnership, combining the trust and credibility of our market-leading media brands, premium audiences and large numbers of online shoppers, with the utility of accessing Gumtree’s incredible database of classifieds.”