It’s estimated that Craig Newmark’s creation (www.craigslist.org) is taking millions from classified sections near you. Many journalists haven’t even heard of Newmark’s list which is a very common knowledge classified area in the SF bay, the home of Craig’s list.
Craig found a niche, and I commend him for such. I also wish I had come up with the list idea myself. Craigslist is blazing fast due to the absence of advertisements. The revenue that keeps craigslist up and running flows from the jobs section. Pay to post an opening for a job, every other aspect of craigslist is free.
Yearly, Craig takes an estimated $50-60 Million dollars from would be news paper classified ads. Al, a business section columnist for the SF Chronicle says that since Craig has deprived the newspapers of this revenue, he needs to find a way to fill the void he created. I don’t think Craig owes anyone, nobody with a great money making idea find a way to replace the revenue that they divert. Yet the fact that Mr. Newmark’s reply was “I’m trying to figure out how to help” makes him that much cooler of a fellow in my book.