Newspapers needn't fear Craigslist

Ad site's founder sees bright journalism future - on Web

Jeff Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Monday, March 6, 2006

The Internet is bursting at the seams with blogs and forms of community-driven content such as the mostly free online classified advertising site Craigslist.

The social and financial implications of these fast-growing online communities will be tackled at the South by Southwest Interactive Conference in Austin, Texas, Friday through March 14. The conference is a lovefest for self-described uber-geeks and others involved in blogging, Web design, online community networks and other Internet-related communications.

The Rocky Mountain News last week talked with Craigslist founder Craig Newmark about his business and its impact on traditional media in advance of his appearance at the Austin interactive conference.

Newmark is a San Francisco entrepreneur who founded Craigslist in 1995 and now can brag that his advertising service is used by more than 10 million people a month and yet operated by a phenomenally small staff of 19.

Craigslist sites, which include discussion forums in addition to classified ads covering dozens of categories, are tailored to communities in all 50 states and 35 countries.

In an interview last week, Hugh Forrest, director of the Interactive Conference since its inception 13 years ago, characterized Craigslist as a "really early and basic example" of what the Internet can do in creating communities and disrupting traditional media models. Newspapers, for example, rely heavily on paid classified advertising.

More and more, these growing online communities also are generating controversy for their content, with battles over control.

Craigslist, for example, recently was sued for allowing people to put up housing ads that contain allegedly discriminatory language.

"When you have an open tent and anyone can come in and do what they want, what happens when someone comes and does something that's not acceptable?" Forrest asked.

"These are really interesting questions," Forrest added. "One of the interesting things about Craig is that he is very, very diligent about patrolling and policing that community."

Craigslist's "terms of use" prohibits people from posting ads that violate the Fair Housing Act.

But still some people do, so the ads themselves are subject to "community flagging," meaning other users can flag them as inappropriate. If enough negative flags are received, the ads are removed from the site. Craigslist says about 5 percent of all of its postings are removed through this process.

"This system suffers some of the deficiencies of a democracy, and about 2 percent of flagged postings are OK - but without it the site would quickly become unusable," Craigslist says on its Web site.

For his part, Forrest believes that generally the online community can police itself.

So does Newmark, as revealed in an interview with the News last week.

Question: What was your intent when you started Craigslist?

Answer: I didn't have much. Mostly I saw other people giving back a lot to the community, and I thought I should do that.

Q: How do you think Craigslist has changed the world and the world of advertising?

A: I think it's allowed the people that use it to get everyday stuff done more easily and more effectively . . . (such as) a place to live and get a job.

Q: Are you surprised about being attacked on discrimination grounds (being sued for running housing ads that are allegedly discriminatory)?

A: It's a case of a good deed goes punished. There are people who distrust the public at large and want to restrict people's speech. Those are the kind of folks that want to destroy the village.

Q: Why did you decide to start charging for some ads in some communities?

A: A long time ago we asked people in our community how we should raise revenue to pay for the bills. People told us to charge advertisers who otherwise would be paying more money for less effective ads. The consensus was that we should charge for job postings and real estate postings. Our site is almost 100 percent free, but we're right now engaged in a public discussion about charging for apartment rental listings in New York.

Q: I thought you already had planned to do that.

A: We will be doing that. We had scheduled it for (last week), but we're holding off to do the job better. We've been charging for job ads in San Francisco since 1998, we charge also in Los Angeles and New York, and we're talking about Boston and Washington.

Q: How do you feel when you hear about the economic impact you've had on mainstream newspapers?

A: We have had an impact, but it's been greatly exaggerated. For example, falling circulation is a much bigger effect.

Q: What would you do if you were running a major newspaper dependent on the support of classified ad revenue?

A: I'd be moving to the Web faster, hiring more investigative journalists, engaging the community and speaking truth to power.

Q: What do you mean by that?

A: When a politician is lying and you know they're lying, say something about it.

Q: What do you see as the future of "citizen journalism," and how do you plan to participate?

A: The big theme is that citizen journalism is very exciting since a lot of people can dig up stories or print stories that others are afraid to print. On the other hand, we all really need professional writing, fact checking, the editing you get in your professional newsrooms.

Q: How do you plan to participate?

A: Right now, there's no Craigslist interest. For me personally, doing things like meeting with the Center of Public Integrity. They are building databases which should make it relatively easy for anyone to figure out who's paying what politicians for what favors.

Q: Do you believe local newspapers will still be around 20 years from now, or how do you think news will be delivered?

A: I think they will be around and much stronger, but the information will be delivered electronically. Keep an eye on the scrollable displays that you could roll out of your cell phone (with news tailored to each individual).

Q: Anything to add or about your role in the upcoming South by Southwest Interactive Conference?

A: The important thing is about what we do. Our community, the people in the community, are the folks who really run the site. We run the infrastructure, the special circumstances, that's all. We need to contrast what is a culture of trust vs. a culture of control.