Craigslist’s warning to UK newspapers
Posted on February 26, 2007 by Richard Beddard
Filed Under Investing |
I feel the need to apologise before posting another quote of the day from Radio 4’s Today Programme. But frankly, I listen to it most mornings because it helps form the backdrop against which I make investing decisions (and others, like who to vote for :-)). The radio has a number of advantages:
- It’s easy to tune in and out of while you do other things
- You can tell a lot more about a person if you hear them
- Increasingly you can listen again.
Today it’s Cragslist ceo Jim Buckmaster. Craigslist, a classified ads site, is accused by newspapers in the US of undermining the market by taking the low cost model to new extremes. With very few exceptions, it’s free to place classified ads in Craigslist and, despite its traffic, the site won’t accept other forms of advertising.
Unlike the other top 10 English language websites, all of which have over 10,000 employees, we have just the 23 employees so we keep our costs low.
Says Mr Buckmaster, explaining how they do it, though he doesn’t feel responsible for the impact:
I think that’s been overblown a bit. Newspapers are still extremely profitable. I think it’s easier for execs at newspapers to point at us when they’re doing costcutting and firing journalists than it is to say we’re trying to make ourselves even more profitable than we already are. >> BBC audio <<
Craigslist hasn’t really caught on here yet. My local Craigslist in Cambridge is a skeleton site. But if Mr Buckmaster’s appearance on Radio 4 heralds a push into UK Cities, perhaps our ad. salesmen, and their bosses, will be looking over their shoulders too.
Footnote:
- Craigslist’s founder, chairman and ‘customer service representative‘, Craig Newmark, has a blog.
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One Response to “Craigslist’s warning to UK newspapers”
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The problem with craigslist is its association with singles clubs and porn.
There is already a free online classified advertising service that does very well in this country. http://www.gumtree.com.
As in NZ where trademe.co.nz has beaten and destroyed ebay by being first. First mover advantage has gone to gumtree and they will be hard to beat now.