To understand the relationship between Craigslist and the newspapers of America, recall last summer’s hit movie War of the Worlds. Think of Craigslist as the army of rampaging tripods and publishers as the screaming humans who don’t know what hit them. The tripods don’t get any lines, let alone a scene where they and the humans talk things over. But if there were one it might resemble Craigslist founder Craig Newmark’s recent appearance at an Association of Alternative Newsweeklies conference in San Francisco.
Craigslist is teaching journalists that virtuous news gathering alone won’t save them. That’s an old lesson. Back in the 60s and 70s proud city dailies were brought to their knees by suburban throwaways that slapped press releases around supermarket ads. Now Craigslist, the homely but accessible, free national online bulletin board, is threatening to wipe out classified advertising in dailies and alternative weeklies.
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The first questioner at the conference asked Newmark for mercy. Reminding Newmark that two years ago eBay bought a quarter of Craigslist’s stock to make it even more menacing, he wondered, “Why not just take a five-year moratorium on expansion and let the local communities build their own sites, so that the money stays in town and local newspapers can survive? You’ve got plenty of money, you’ve got a big operation, you’re famous, you’re speaking everywhere. Why do you need to keep expanding? Why do you need to move into every damn market in the country and make life more difficult for people there?”
Or whatever. “I need people to tell me if I’m right or if I’m full of shit, basically,” he said. “And I’ll entertain comments on either side of that spectrum.” (“Laughter.”)
The Reader just revamped its online classifieds and now offers photos, maps, and other features in order to compete directly with Craigslist. Advertisers can post directly on the site, ads are free for private individuals, and because the definition of “private” was expanded to include sublessors and owner occupants of two-flats and three-flats, at first revenues will shrink. Yet Murphy has assigned nine ad reps to monitor the Web site and edit ads that cross the line. Craigslist doesn’t assign anyone to do that. It tells users to “flag” any ads they’re offended by, and if enough flags fly the ad comes down. Under this approach, an ad won’t be deleted as objectionable until someone objects to it.
Will Congress also have the stomach to deal with fair-housing restrictions that have been the law of the land for nearly four decades? The Craigslist suit has put that question on the table. Libowsky calls the Internet the “wild west”–and predicts that in ten years “it’s unlikely it’s going to be the same.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Amy Gill.
