Craig Newmark, it seems, is newspapers' public enemy no. 1. But if I was in any other profession (and even now), I'd concede that Craigslist was a spectacular idea. It made the buying and selling of crappy curry-scented furniture and the search for a relatively un-psycho roommate so easy -- but it swept the classified advertising rug out from under papers' feet.
But what if we took it back? Staged a coup against Newmark & Co.?
Newspapers' web sites, for example, the Herald, offer online classifieds. But you have to pay to post them, just like in the print edition. Why would anyone do such a thing, with Craigslist offering the same thing for free, with millions more hits?
What if newspapers offered free classifieds online? Now wait, before you click away in a fit of cynicism, hear me out: It would be free to post, search and respond to ads. Revenue would come from display ads (banners and such) on the pages, and perhaps one would have to be a newspaper subscriber to post, or pay a small one-time or annual fee for the privilege.
To make it work, to take back classifieds from Craigslist, these pages would have to offer something new -- a feature that would make them better or easier to use than Craigslist. Maybe a better search engine within the site, or email alerts when something you're looking for comes up, or an instant message system between users.
It'll probably take something much more innovative to beat Craigslist, which according to its own web site is the seventh-most trafficked English web site in the world and which garners publicity with every news story that mentions it. But it's worth trying to take what Newmark started and turn it on its head -- and to newspapers' advantage.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Ah, but if the "free" ads contain others' display ads, then they're not "free". It's a barter deal.
Craig
craig@craigslist.org
Hi Rachel-
I'm a longtime subscriber to your professor's media-related postings, as well as
a business editor, speechwriter, ghostwriter, and
occasional
freelancer. Professor Kennedy
urged
readers of his blog to drop in on his students’ pages, so you may get a few
unexpected hits -- like this one!
Being an editor by trade, I couldn’t resist a brief critique; I hope you don’t
mind a few random observations.
Re “Craigslist Coup”:
You wrote, “… it swept the classified advertising rug out from under papers'
feet.” Actually, the proper cliché is “pulled” the rug out, but either way, you
should avoid such trite phrasings “like the plague.” When a saying is endlessly
repeated, meaning slowly drains away. Find a fresh way to make your point.
Perfect example: your “crappy curry-scented furniture” and “relatively un-psycho
roommate” remarks. Fun, interesting, lively; like a breath of fresh air. (Oops!)
So you got a comment, and not just from anyone, but from “Craig” himself! Think
it’s real? In this instance, a “fit of cynicism” -- or at least a dose of
skepticism -- might be appropriate. What are the odds that the founder of
Craigslist would read and respond to your posting within hours?
It could happen, of course. He may use a powerful alert program that spiders the
web at blazing speed. And the email address he typed in is genuine. Furthermore,
Craig is interested in blogging. According to his
web bio,
“Craig's also involved with a number of community efforts, particularly
involving mideast peace and new forms of media, involving ‘participatory
journalism’ and blogging." (Let's graciously ignore the fact that Craig's
biographer used variations of the word "involve" three times in one sentence!)
The bio continues: “He's been featured in the Associated Press, the Wall Street
Journal, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Business Week, Time
Magazine, and Esquire Magazine.”
And, to that distinguished list, we can add -- SlajBlog!
Great job, Rachel! I’ll be back for another look sometime.
-Jack Burlingame
jackburlingame at yahoo dot com
P.S. Sorry about the jagged formatting. Lesson learned: Don't paste HTML directly from FrontPage into Blogger!
-Jack
Post a Comment