Newmark Denies Craigslist Is Killing Newspapers

Ian Lamont writes "Computerworld has an interview with Craig Newmark about the history of Craigslist and it's growth over the years (it's now expanding into foreign-language markets — it recently created several Spanish sites in Spanish cities). He also disputes the notion that Craigslist is responsible for dismantling newspapers' revenue models. Rather, he blames niche-classified sites like autotrader.com and Monster as well as newspapers' unrealistic profit expectations in the new media world: 'Newspapers are going after 10% to 30% profit margins for their businesses and that hurts them more than anything. A lot of things are happening on the Internet that never happened before because the Internet is a vehicle for everyone. The mass media is no longer only for the powerful, and that's a huge change for the entire newspaper and news industry."

Comments

Re:Newspapers: A necessary waste?

[Nomad the Odd]

Do you honestly think the government is worried about newspaper journalists? The journalists know if they publish anything too bad, they will be put on no fly lists, probably not get press passes, and whatever else the government thinks it an get away with.