Dear John
Jan 3, 2009 Gelt, Medialites, O Mores!
It’s interesting to me that we see far more anger from Old Media folks aimed at bloggers, etc., than at Craigslist, even though Craigslist has done far more economic harm to the newspaper industry than bloggers, who probably add eyeballs rather than (as Craigslist does) subtracting them.
Very interesting indeed. Craigslist hasn’t only destroyed conventional classified advertising, which was inevitable — a more natural use of the Internet is hardly conceivable. It’s probably really done in giveaway papers such as the Village Voice, whose recent layoffs of franchise players indicate nothing so much as the classic death spiral, that lived above all on (increasingly politically incorrect anyway) backpage ads for sleazy “exotic” services. These supposedly generated $80,000 a month for the Voice in the good times.
For such outfits, the highly publicized “crackdown” at Craigslist is too little, too late. Too bad.
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:26 pm
[...] ANOTHER UPDATE: Thoughts on Craigslist from Ron Coleman. [...]