Craigslist.org Founder Eyes Journalism - looking for "talented amateurs"

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Craigslist.org Founder Eyes Journalism - looking for "talented amateurs"


Craigslist.org Founder Eyes Journalism

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 9, 2005
Filed at 12:00 p.m. ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The number of people who use Craigslist.org is expanding at more than 100 percent per year -- a growth rate any venture capitalist would covet. But the people who run the 10-year-old community Web site, which gets 8 million unique users and more than 2 billion page views per month, seem to have little interest in exploiting new sources of revenue, going public or even adding to their 18-person staff.

The bare-bones site -- a trusted resource for everything from finding roommates to selling used cars in 105 cities in 23 countries, charges for very few classifieds, doesn't serve up traditional ads and plans no major changes to its business model.

Instead, founder Craig Newmark told Associated Press editors and writers in a bureau visit, his newest fascination is community journalism.

Newmark hopes to develop a pool of ''talented amateurs'' who could investigate scandals, cover politics and promote the most important and credible stories. Articles would be published on Internet sites ranging from Craigslist to individual Web logs, or blogs.

Craigslist.org gets more than 4 million classified ads and 1 million forums postings each month, and Newmark -- who no longer runs it but remains one of three board members -- is often blamed for decimating classified advertising revenue at regional newspapers. But he says he has no desire to steal readers from mainstream media.

But he believes the reason why newspapers are losing circulation is that too many traditional journalists are willing to quote politicians and business executives even if they're blatantly lying -- merely for the sake of perceived objectivity. He'd prefer an ''open source'' model of journalism where legions of volunteers act as writers, assignment editors and fact checkers to challenge mainstream journalists....cont'd

http://tech.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Craigslist.html?

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