Newmark started Craigslist 12 years ago in his San Francisco apartment where he created an online platform for his friends to basically help each other out. Now there are people helping each other out in 450 cities in 50 countries claiming over 7 billion hits a month.
In a previous post I responded to a few comments made by Newmark at the recent Newspaper Association of America annual convention in New York. One of the comments was that he has a “”great deal of sympathy for people who run the printing presses. They are screwed.” Based on the current state of things for newspapers, after all this was right in the midst of the save the book review mania, I saw this as another canary in the coal mine for our beloved newspapers.
In a recent post on his blog he said this:
“a few reports took my statement that ‘people running press are screwed’ in some figurative way, not straight, and I don’t get that”
This week I had a chance to talk to Craig in a little more depth on this issue.
Newmark has admitted that Craigslist “does drain some revenue from some papers that rely on ads” but he does not believe it has much more than a “minor effect.”
So what about the relationship between craigslist and the current newspaper woes?
“There is no correlation” between Craigslist and the struggling newspapers Newmark told me and his hope is that newspapers improve not disappear. He would like them to invest more in their investigative reporting and to “speak truth to power” more.
They also have to make the necessary adjustments to deal with the shift in the delivery of information that is underway and improve their online presence.
Use less paper and provide stronger original content.
Can’t argue with that.
Here is a good Q&A with Craig at I Want Media