http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050507/ap_on_hi_te/craigslist_6
Craigslist.org founder eyes journalism
By RACHEL KONRAD, AP Technology Writer Fri May 6, 9:08 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO - The number of people who use Craigslist.org is expanding at
more than 100 percent per year -- a growth rate any venture capitalist would
covet.
But the people who run the 10-year-old community Web site, which gets 8 million
unique users and more than 2 billion page views per month, seem to have little
interest in exploiting new sources of revenue, going public or even adding to
their 18-person staff.
The bare-bones site -- a trusted resource for everything from finding roommates
to selling used cars in 105 cities in 23 countries, charges for very few
classifieds, doesn't serve up traditional ads and plans no major changes to its
business model.
Instead, founder Craig Newmark told Associated Press editors and writers in a
bureau visit, his newest fascination is community journalism.
Newmark hopes to develop a pool of "talented amateurs" who could investigate
scandals, cover politics and promote the most important and credible stories.
Articles would be published on Internet sites ranging from Craigslist to
individual Web logs, or blogs.
Craigslist.org gets more than 4 million classified ads and 1 million forums
postings each month, and Newmark -- who no longer runs it but remains one of
three board members -- is often blamed for decimating classified advertising
revenue at regional newspapers. But he says he has no desire to steal readers
from mainstream media.
But he believes the reason why newspapers are losing circulation is that too
many traditional journalists are willing to quote politicians and business
executives even if they're blatantly lying -- merely for the sake of perceived
objectivity. He'd prefer an "open source" model of journalism where legions of
volunteers act as writers, assignment editors and fact checkers to challenge
mainstream journalists.
"People are looking for attitude and guts in reporting -- not full-on gonzo
journalism, but hey, tell us what you think," said Newmark, who described
himself as having Whig values -- strong on defense, fiscally conservative but
socially liberal.
"Maybe Hunter Thompson had it right," Newmark said, referring to the late
cultural icon whose rollicking, first-person narratives of drug addiction, the
Hells Angels and the 1972 presidential election shook up the media decades ago.
Newmark isn't ready to unveil any new ventures, but said he's been
brainstorming with Dan Gillmor, a former technology columnist at the San Jose
Mercury News and founder of Grassroots Media Inc., and Jeff Jarvis,
buzzmachine.com blogger and a former critic for TV Guide and People.
Newmark hopes the ideas take shape in time to supply voters with a
"trustworthy" daily political report before the 2006 midterm elections. Young
people, he said, particularly need credible online news, since the Internet is
the top source of news for 18- to 34-year-olds, besting second-ranked local
television by a 41-to-15 percent margin, according to a recent Carnegie Corp.
study.
Newmark still spends about half his 40-hour work week at the Craigslist
headquarters, a Victorian storefront in San Francisco, filtering through
e-mailed complaints of fraud and investigating potential scams. The vast
majority are "bait and switch" scams and other frauds perpetrated by landlords
and apartment brokers in New York, the site's largest source of rental listings
after San Francisco.
Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster says fraudulent postings -- from Nigerian money
laundering scams to solicitations for multilevel marketing pyramids --
represent less than one-tenth of one percent of listings. But the New York
section is now so rife with con artists that they may begin charging landlords
to discourage illegitimate listings.
Buckmaster emphasized that eBay Inc.'s 25 percent stake in Craigslist hasn't
changed the site's "noncommercial" bent. EBay founder and billionaire Pierre
Omidyar also joined Newmark and Buckmaster on the three-person board to learn
more about the online classified business, an area of intense interest not only
to eBay but also to e-commerce rivals Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) and
Google Inc.
All the revenue of Craigslist, which remains private and profitable, comes from
the $25 to $75 it charges per help-wanted ad in its three top markets, San
Francisco, New York and Los Angeles.
Virtually all other advertisements and postings are free. Charging individuals
for participating in the forums, or accepting money for banner ads or other
commercials, would go against the site's philosophy.
Newmark, who rode public transportation to the AP office on Thursday, said he
already has all the riches he needs. Still, he says, "sometimes I've winced
when I thought about how much money I've walked away from."
___
On the Net:
Craigslist: www.craigslist.org
_____
_/ ____\____ Frederick Noronha (FN) * Freelance Journalist
\ __\/ \ Goa India T +91.832.2409490 M +919822 122436
| | | | \ http://fn.swiki.net http://goabooks.swiki.net
|__| |___| / http://www.bytesforall.net http://www.goanet.org
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