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"They’re not concerned with fixing anything for newspapers because Craig refuses to accept responsibility for helping break them." Newmark's repeated donations

by mapgrep 14y ago

"They’re not concerned with fixing anything for newspapers because Craig refuses to accept responsibility for helping break them." Newmark's repeated donations and support to both new online journalism endeavors and old-line journalism institutes like Knight Foundation are a matter of public record. An example Google search: http://www.google.com/search?q=craig+newmark+donation+(journalism+or+newspapers) http://www.google.com/search?q=craig+newmark+donation+(journ... Newmark has expressly stated that he makes these donations of time and money partly because of the role Craigslist played in disrupting newspapers. I find it especially impressive that he does this given that he has nothing to apologize for. Newspaper classifieds were insanely expensive and huge cash cows.

jeremymims 14y ago
Keep in mind that I was explaining to a newspaper publisher why Craigslist would not work with them to help them make more money. Craig's focus is on building tools that help fact-check stories and help news organizations remain trustworthy, not efforts to help increase monetization. That's fine, but it's a bit like polishing the brass on the Titanic. From NiemanLab: "Craig Newmark’s most recently announced project, CraigConnects, is, as best as I can tell, a way of funneling Newmark’s attention capital towards (mostly) nonprofit organizations." Attention capital is nice and welcome, but hardly the thing that will save good journalism.