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June 28, 2006 4:00 AM PDT
Craigslist's Craig Newmark--no more Mr. Nice Guy?
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During an interview last week, a smiling Newmark offered up a little history lesson in response: "In the 1780s (following America's War of Independence), the British commonly referred to the American experiment as anarchism," the 53-year-old Newmark said. "And look...it's kind of working out."
Craig Newmark
Considered by many to be one of the most benign of Silicon Valley's top innovators, Newmark has shown a feistier side recently. When he's not verbally jousting with knights, the mastermind behind the Web's top classifieds publication can be found beating a drum for Net neutrality or defending his namesake network of sites against claims that it allows people to post discriminatory housing ads.
He's suggested that Cox Communications wrongfully blocked access to his site, and he's fended off criticism from New York real estate brokers who got peeved when Craigslist began charging them $10 to post apartment listings. And then there's the longtime grudge against Craigslist held by many newspapers executives, who claim the network is almost single-handedly killing their industry.
So is this a case of no more Mr. Nice Guy?
"We do what feels right to us," Newmark told a crowd of executives last week at the Supernova 2006 media conference. "That's our idea of a moral compass."
Up to now, Newmark's compass is apparently pointing him in the right direction. Last week, Craigslist expanded into 100 new cities and now operates in 300. Each month, customers view 4 billion pages on the family of sites and employers post more than 500,000 new job listings, said Jim Buckmaster, CEO of the privately held company.
Craigslist allows anyone to post ads for almost anything they want to sell, without charging them a cent. Buyers don't pay either. People find jobs, rooms to rent, pets, furniture and clothes, as well as lovers, on Craigslist. The effect of the network on our society is hard to gauge, but it's difficult to find anyone in the tech sector or in the nation's biggest cities that hasn't unloaded an old couch or found a roommate on the site.
"I love Craig," said Forrester Research media analyst Charlene Li. Typically conservative when discussing companies she covers, Li gushes when talking about Newmark. Before refurbishing her home recently, Li sold most of its contents on Craigslist, right down to the doorknobs. "Everybody has their own Craigslist story" she said.
Few companies have fostered as much customer loyalty. That's largely due to Newmark's almost fanatical attention to customers. He started the list in 1995 as a way to inform friends about special events in San Francisco. From there, the list grew into a company, and Newmark found that he enjoyed working with the public more than overseeing day-to-day operations. Thus, he turned those duties over to someone else and now carries the unusual dual titles of chairman and customer service representative.
He could be at the helm of the company or sit around as its "glamorous figurehead" (as the self-proclaimed nerd has said jokingly), but instead, he spends his days reading e-mails and answering customer complaints--a practice he says even the most high-powered CEO should partake of from time to time.
Another element of the company's popularity among customers is its consistent stance on social responsibility. Sure, plenty of businesses say they care about people and customers, but few forgo profits in order to "give people a break," the Craigslist mantra. The company could be slicing off a tasty share of the billion-dollar classifieds pie for itself. Instead, Craigslist is satisfied with the $25 million it took in last year, according to a story last week in The Wall Street Journal.
But how does Newmark's philosophy on social responsibility jibe with his company's undermining of the revenue that once powered newspapers, historically society's watchdog? Classifieds once made up more than half the profit at many newspapers. That number has steadily declined in recent years.
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28 comments
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Wake up you greedy monoplistic over bearing newspaper publishers. Times are hard for the little business person. Offer fair and competive services or get out of business!
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Exactly right. Justice is something individuals do because it doesn't exist in nature. Whether or not he is more moral than his critics, he takes responsibility for his actions. That is a quality of the enlightened. Nations and corporations are abstractions; abstractions don't act. People do.
Good on Newmark.
This works rather well for Craig - by the way, BIG THANKS Craig - and, from my point of view, is an admirable and desirable thing to do.
However, what do we do when people subscribe to this philosophy have no morals - or at least morals that don't match our sense of morality - and, therefore, from our perspective, follow a broken moral compass.
- Bryan
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.BryanCFleming.com" target="_newWindow">http://www.BryanCFleming.com</a>
True...I am in Phoenix, have Cox, and Craigslist has never been blocked.
Is that anything like when I was a kid I would just stare at my
little brother until he would yell to mom "MOM..! He's staring at
me!"
It's just a post... If you don't want to read it, you ignore it!
Quite frankly, it you wrote to me and said someone was stalking
you through C.L., I'd have a good laugh at your expense.
I think commerce is a great thing and I have nothing against large commercial entities on the web.
However, it is clear that more traditional media powerhouses and those with older business models feel threatened when ordinary citizens can just about meet them at level.
The world is evolving. Either get with it or get out. Rupert Murdoch saw the light with MySpace. Apple saw the light with iTunes. Apparently, some of the world doesn't.
Furthermore, those who critizice Craig for allowing discriminatory housing listings are barking up the wrong tree. If there is a blatantly discriminating real estate or rental ad, the victim's complaint should be with the poster and not the web service.
Post at your own risk. Respond at your own risk. It's like life. It's what makes Craig's List beautiful. Let's not take away our own freedoms, folks. Once we lose them, we won't get them back. If you can't handle a site like Craigslist, the newspapers will be very glad to have you back.
But he also has an odd way of pursuing his social agenda through Craig's List. He seems to pick and choose his sides, and his side seems to always leave people that are looking for legitimate work out in the cold.
He cants a lot about doing the right thing, but at the same time ... Craig's List allows employers to post ads asking for people to work for virtually nothing. This has turned the entertainment and writing jobs/gigs sections into sewers in Los Angeles.
Everyone's complained, Craig's List does nothing, seems to regard people that are looking for legit work in the Business as beneath contempt. "Craig" seems to side more with people who want to pay people for working fourteen hours a day on their short film with "copy, credit, meals" and not with hardworking people that need to make a paycheck to get by.
Not to mention the un-justified flaggings, random blockings, and other nuisiances. Craig's List seems to draw in nuts and scam artist, and drive out legit users.
Ultimately Craig's List is like Ebay. A slice of petty corporate fascism tarted up to look like the consumers best friend. Sure I'll use it until something better comes along. But I won't cry if it goes away either.
Also, be wary of the word "Legit." If the employers are in fact doing something illegal, I hope the law catches up with them. If they are simply bucking tradition, then what they are doing on CL is just as legit as the old way - even if you think it's unethical.
There's also a gazillion scams out there. I'm amazed that it's possible to police the site at all, and I'm incredibly impressed at the extent to which they are able to. I hope that they keep up the good work and that Craigslist and other such sites NEVER go under.
I just can't fathom why with so many things these days, consumers want to blame the wrong party...usually the one with the bigger pockets. It's the real estate agents and landlords who are discriminating. It's buyers and sellers who are scamming. CL is just the means. If someone hung up a scam flyer on a coffee shop bulletin board, would you sue the coffee shop?!
I'm all for anything that levels the playing (for-keeps) field when it comes to us Davids vs. those Goliaths - may they fall on unoccupied soil.
All the Best,
Joe Blow