Entries from lucasgrindley.com blog | Exploring the new way for journalism tagged with 'CraigsList'
End of the Craigslist tangent
Let's cap this spate of posts about Craigslist and its founder, Craig Newmark, with a link to a recent podcast interview. Talking again about citizen journalism, Newmark reiterates his belief that "the people who by consensus are saying more important...
An Oodle of a fool
All I can say is, and you believed him? Oodle (created by Craig Donato) has a genius idea of combining all classified ads into one search. It’s simple. Just index all classifieds and scrape the important information into fields. Problem...
Craigslist founder: Newspaper classifieds have bigger worries than my site
Craig Newmark doesn’t accept the charge that Craigslist is a threat to newspapers. In fact, he says classified ad managers like what he’s doing. They pretty consistently like what we are about and our spirit, even though we are making...
Speaking from many sides of Newmark's mouth
Thanks to a tip from a reader, we’re about to get a closer look at Craigslist founder Craig Newmark. During a speech and Q&A; session, he was repeatedly self-deprecating and entirely candid about why Craigslist charges some of its users...
Publisher Craig Newmark?
During a recent speaking engagement caught on video, Craig Newmark shared his reasons for financially supporting efforts such as Daylife, which has nothing to do with classifieds and more to do with news. The Craigslist founder says his donations are,...
Craigslist listens to users, but not those users
As we all know, Craigslist claims the reason it won’t sell banner ads is none of its users requested the ads. Well, actually, they have. Professional marketers are waking up to the buying power of users on the free classifieds...
Craig Newmark claims users don't want free ads
I’m not keen to every word spoken by Jim Buckmaster or Craig Newmark, but this is the first time I’ve heard either explicitly claim that users asked to be charged for ads in the seven markets where Craigslist does that....
Online ad rates could create market for competitors
Web sites are about to repeat a big mistake that newspapers once made, according to an article in the New York Times. When newspaper ad rates spiked, small advertisers had no place in which they could afford to advertise. So...
Craigslist blames the users
CEO Jim Buckmaster recently reiterated his assertion that Craigslist won’t allow advertising on his site because, “no users are suggesting we run text ads.” Buckmaster’s supposed commitment to its users is invoked only when convenient. Just ask people in the...
Is it OK to sabotage Craigslist?
Newspapers are losing millions of dollars to Craigslist. Lost revenue leads to layoffs and budget cuts. So, I have to ask, is it OK to sabotage Craigslist? Seriously. It’s an option. So we should at least discuss it. What’s stopping...
Craigslist combats spam with traditional business model
In earlier posts, I inferred that Craigslist’s only methods for eliminating racism and prostitution from its Web site are a flagging system and “education” pages. But it turns out there’s one other way – charging users. Here’s how the San...
Police use Craigslist as online street corner
Perhaps the recent use of its site to crackdown on the sex trade should be an eye-opener for CraigsList that flagging and education alone aren’t enough to maintain the “very highest moral high ground.” That’s how CEO Jim Buckmaster described...
Stop racism or Craigslist?
CraigsList lets readers post explicitly racist, homophobic and otherwise disgusting ads for housing. It does nothing to stop these posts. And the court just ruled that CraigsList has no legal obligation to stop any outright discrimination. I understand why there...
Zollman on wasted effort
Listen to Peter Zollman, of the Classified Intelligence and the AIM Group, in an article he wrote for SNPA eBulletin yesterday: As audience migrates online at a remarkable pace, too many newspapers are positioning for the past. They’re trying to...
The 7th Step; Beyond CraigsList
Newspapers should take what they know about their kryptonite and use it against each other. Remember Rule No. 1. “If newspapers are going to survive, first some must die.” Maybe even more than most industries, newspapers spend time identifying and...
Surviving CraigsList, Part 6
6) Disrupt CraigsList Instead of learning from our failed newspaper brethren, let’s take a lesson from CraigsList itself. They stole our lunch by giving away something we couldn’t or weren’t willing to give away ourselves. It’s our turn to steal...
Surviving CraigsList, Part 5
5) Identify competitive advantages What CraigsList offers is not the same service as the newspaper. Newspapers have printed pages; CraigsList does not. That’s the one thing CraigsList can never give away: Printed listings, delivered directly to your neighbors’ homes. So...
Surviving CraigsList, Part 4
4) Cut expenses Even if the newspaper does start selling advertisers around its classifieds content, it’s probably never going to recoup all of the lost classifieds revenue. There are consequences to that realization. The Classifieds section must shrink. Just like...
Surviving Craigslist, Part 3
3) Identify the actual advertisers If core Classifieds are placed by readers, then who are the advertisers? Newspapers print all kinds of content. No one pays us to print stories. How did we make a business out of that free...
Surviving CraigsList, Part 2
2) Change paradigm The operators of CraigsList are not out to make a buck, they’re out to make a point. And this is their biggest weakness. Once newspapers accept their lesson, we can make more money than CraigsList. Here’s the...
How Newspapers Can Survive CraigsList
The six steps to overcoming a disruptive business model and creating a new one to live by. With CraigsList in your market, the time for hand-wringing and worrying is over. It’s time to do something. So far newspapers like mine...
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