Recruitment website TotalJobs has signed an advert-sharing deal with the Express and Sunday Express.

The contra deal means that all recruitment adverts that appear in the newspapers will also appear on TotalJobs and the Job Channel.

In return, TotalJobs gets a free quarter-page advert placed in the newspaper’s Thursday recruitment section, which has a readership of 3.5 million.

Andrea Watson, careers editor of the Express, told Professional Recruiter that the move would allow the newspaper to increase its profile in the recruitment industry.

Meanwhile TotalJobs and the Job Channel hope the deal will attract passive jobseekers to them, and open up new sectors of business. ‘The Express has a lot of jobs in engineering and catering, which we’re very strong in,’ said TotalJobs alliance manager John Cassidy, ’but it also carries jobs in other sectors which will provide us with new content. The benefits were clear for both sides.’

When the online recruitment boom began in 1996, The Express feared employment websites would completely wipe out traditional recruitment advertising. Journalists were instructed not to mention online recruitment in their copy.

The move represents a complete U-turn in strategy as the Richard Desmond-owned newspaper attempts to compete with other successful print/online collaborations.

These include Fish4, which is owned by a network of regional newspaper organisations, the Guardian Media Group-backed Workthing and the Evening Standard’s BigBlueDog.

Jon Notley, advertising manager at Express Newspapers, said the deal had so far created 30-40 adverts a week on TotalJobs and expected the scheme would eventually lead to the transfer of at least 100 adverts a week.