4 ms·

> Broad subscription to newspapers was a brief and exceptional phenomenon. But people weren't even paying for the news back then! That $.25 for the daily news

> Broad subscription to newspapers was a brief and exceptional phenomenon. But people weren't even paying for the news back then! That $.25 for the daily newspaper didn't even cover printing and distribution of the paper it was printed on. The price was just a filter to separate consumers who actually wanted the product vs those who would use it as fuel to insulate or heat their homes. Advertisers paid for the news. They always have. The difference between now and "the old days" — what put news into a crisis — is that they used to sell their own ads. When the Internet came along, they abdicated that control to ad networks, which eventually consolidated to Google and Meta, and are now confused by the fact that they're only getting ten cents on the dollar.

CoastalCoder 2y ago
My brother used to be a reporter and editor. IIRC, he said Craigslist killing classified ads did major violence to papers' finances.
- Eric_WVGG 2y ago
  Absolutely. I was working at a newspaper when it got started. This is a near-verbatim conversation I had with our publisher: “Hey John, I was wondering about our classifieds revenue. How much of our money comes in from that vs. display ads?" [those are the designed ads with photos and graphics etc.] “Almost exactly half. Like 49-51% depending on the month. Why?” “Well I was talking to some guys from the SF Weekly, apparently there’s this guy out there named Craig…” I explained that there was nothing stopping "Craig" from cloning his site in every market, and developed a clone that we could license to other papers around the country before Craigslist could get traction. Unfortunately, a new publisher came in, and when he got word of my project, axed the entire operation — “This would destroy our classified ads revenue!” Years later, Steve Jobs said that he was happy to “cannibalize” iPod sales with the new iPhone. Really wish I had the wits to explain that as well back then.

CoastalCoder 2y ago

My brother used to be a reporter and editor. IIRC, he said Craigslist killing classified ads did major violence to papers' finances.

Eric_WVGG 2y ago
Absolutely. I was working at a newspaper when it got started. This is a near-verbatim conversation I had with our publisher: “Hey John, I was wondering about our classifieds revenue. How much of our money comes in from that vs. display ads?" [those are the designed ads with photos and graphics etc.] “Almost exactly half. Like 49-51% depending on the month. Why?” “Well I was talking to some guys from the SF Weekly, apparently there’s this guy out there named Craig…” I explained that there was nothing stopping "Craig" from cloning his site in every market, and developed a clone that we could license to other papers around the country before Craigslist could get traction. Unfortunately, a new publisher came in, and when he got word of my project, axed the entire operation — “This would destroy our classified ads revenue!” Years later, Steve Jobs said that he was happy to “cannibalize” iPod sales with the new iPhone. Really wish I had the wits to explain that as well back then.