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