E-Media Tidbits

This comes from last week, but it's still worth noting. Andrew Nachison and Dale Peskin (of the Media Center at the American Press Institute) at the American Society of Newspaper Editors convention asked the assembled editors if they knew who Craig Newmark is. I wasn't there, but Tim Porter reports that in the room of several hundred people, "only a smattering of hands rose. A few more hands went up at the mention of Craigslist and its free classifieds."

That's troubling on two levels. First, in cities where Craigslist is popular, it's taking millions of dollars of classified advertising revenue from metro newspapers annually. (A frequently cited estimate from Classified Intelligence Report estimates that in the San Francisco Bay Area market, Craigslist annually reduces newspaper classified revenues by $50-65 million.) It's shocking to realize that a majority of American newspaper editors have not even heard of Craig.

Second, Newmark has expressed an interest in diving into "citizen journalism"; after all, it's a good fit with the Craigslist community-empowerment model. This is what likely will be an important component of journalism in the next decade, so I would hope that newspaper editors are at least staying informed on developments in citizen journalism.

Porter, a former newspaper editor now doing media consulting, also noted this about Newmark recently: "Al Saracevic, a business section columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, tells Craig Newmark that if Craigslist is going to take the classified ad money that used to flow so freely to the Chronicle and other newspapers, revenue that pays for the journalism the papers produce, then Craig has a responsibility to fill the resulting journalistic hole. Craig says Al is right."

Says Newmark: "Al's right about giving back. … I'm trying to figure out how to help."

I'll admit to getting a bit perplexed about news like this, that many newspaper editors are oblivious to what Newmark and Craigslist are doing. My guess is that many of them simply dismiss the free (well, mostly free) model and figure that it can't and won't work -- ergo, it'll go away in time. I hear that in my feedback from readers when I write something about Craigslist and the threat it poses to the newspaper industry. It's denial, in my opinion. And it's dangerous.