Craigslist founder tells NAA to take cues from Stewart, Colbert; admits bizarre fascination with KO

[DeepModem Mom]

Editor&Publisher: Craigslist Founder: People Who Run Printing Presses 'Screwed'
By Jennifer Saba
Published: May 07, 2007

NEW YORK You have to hand it to Craig Newmark, founder of the wildly successful classified site Craigslist, for telling it like it is to an audience of newspaper publishers.

Newmark, along with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and talk show host Charlie Rose, opened the Newspaper Association of America's annual convention here in New York City this morning.

Newmark fielded questions from Rose pertaining to Craigslist's rise to prominence, mainly at the expense of newspapers. The mostly free classified site, which covers such categories as real estate, help wanted, personals, and general merchandise, has been taking important classified dollars away from newspapers. The site claims over 7 billion hits a month worldwide.

But Newmark doesn't feel guilty about the ongoing shift of classified dollars away from the medium. While he is a champion of more investigative reporting in newspapers -- which he admits costs money to fund -- he wasn't going to let the crowd boo-hoo about revenue woes. He deftly mentioned newspapers' high profit margins -- somewhere in the ballpark of 10% to 20% -- as proof there is plenty of money to feed investigative journalism and the newsroom. "I don't understand what the problem is," he said.

"People like Helen Thomas need backup," he said....

***

He told the crowd to start taking cues from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert who hold politicians and lobbyists to the fire. "We should see the equivalent of that in newspapers," Newmark instructed adding that he also listens to NPR, reads the San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times, watches CNN, has a "bizarre fascination with Keith Olbermann" and checks in with blogs like Gawker and the Huffington Post.

When asked by one audience member if he were to start a newspaper today what would it look like, Newmark said, "I haven't really thought about it." He did say it would involved lots of investigative reporting in "big areas," would be Web friendly and easy to print out.

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003581648

[rosesaylavee]

1. LOVE this man...

a true iconoclast and a friend of the people. Wonder how much money his list has made money for its users? America needs more who are selfless just like him.

[Recursion]

6. It doesn't even need to be "selfless"

He takes in several million dollars each year from paid and broker placements (and good for him) -- he's managed to find a way to earn money running a website without turning the entire experience into him demanding every penny he can soak out of the user. The web needs a lot more of that.

[rosesaylavee]

8. O I know he makes a huge wad of money

but he turned down opptys to make even more at his readers/users expense. I really admire him for that as that is so highly unusual.

[roguevalley]

9. I believe he's turned down offers to buy him out.

[triguy46]

2. The MSM is now too much a part of the story...

too used to their own fleeting fame, six figure incomes, to put themselves or their employers at risk. They want to lob softballs, then have drinks with those they cover.

[blogslut]

3. Go Craig!

He is soooo right.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. Place the blame where it belongs, in great part:

At the feet of the schools who are training our reporters and editors. A lot of it is theirs.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. I've been told that even copy editors and headline writers...

are now poorly equipped for their jobs.

[bonito]

7. I hope he does n/t

[Berry Cool]

10. What's so bizarre about a fascination with Keith Olbermann? n/t

[DeepModem Mom]

11. Well, for one, Craig's a man. And, as I read this, he's a fan of Stewart and Colbert...

but there's something about KO that fascinates him, and he's maybe a little weirded out by that. (I, in fact, can't explain precisely my own fascination with the Great KO, or that of his legion of fervent fans.)

I took the statement as a compliment -- unusual, but a compliment.