Craigslist gets bigger, goes smaller
By Steve Outing on Jun 19, 2006 in Classifieds
Craigslist added another 100 cities this week, bringing the total coverage for the free-classifieds company to around 300 cities. Craig & company are, in the U.S., getting down to smaller communities now.
This means that a new wave of newspaper publishers now get to freak out about the Craigslist threat to their classifieds business model. I got a call from a reporter at the Roanoke (Virginia) Times today, wondering what might happen now that Craigslist has arrived there. I was impressed that the Times was willing to assign a story about Craigslist’s local entry; some newspapers prefer not to give Craig any publicity.
As I told the reporter, a new Craigslist in a community will take some time to build a user base, so immediate panic isn’t called for. But if and when Craigslist does catch on, then the local newspapers need to adapt. More free ads for certain categories is an obvious logical reaction, with money coming from premium upsells to free ads and contextual paid advertising surrounding the free classifieds.
Thinking of my own behavior, I told the reporter, “Newspaper classifieds are now dead to me.” That is, when I have something to sell or buy (up to and including cars), I no longer even think about my local newspaper classifieds. Craigslist in my market (Denver-Boulder, Colorado) is so widely used and works so well — at least, it has for me, multiple times — that I no longer need newspaper classifieds. They’ve been replaced by something that works better.
On Jun 21, 2006, James Neal
said:
Six years living in Boston and Craigslist provided me with several roommates and apartments. Great fan of the site but what’s up with the design? I’ve heard rumors of a major design overhaul soon. It would really make the site even better.
On Jun 26, 2006, Howard Owens
said:
I still think craigslist can be beat.
Newspaper classifieds aren’t dead to me — I use whatever works for a particular need.
Newspaper classifieds, especially online, are still incredibly powerful and effective, which is a big competitive advantage.
Free isn’t necessarily a competitive advantage.
That isn’t to say that individual local newspapers won’t go bankrupt if they’re not careful and creative about meeting the challenges of craigslist and others.
On Sep 12, 2006, Amy Gahran said:
Steve — you\'re now just a few blocks from Dave Taylor. I\'m thinking: LUNCH!
- Amy Gahran
On Sep 12, 2006, Joel Fugazzotto said:
Congrats to both you and Derek on the Enthusiast Group\'s new office space!
On Sep 13, 2006, Howard Owens said:
That\'s a significant step for your company. Congratulations. As a former home-office, small business owner … I very much appreciate what a big deal this is.
On Feb 3, 2007, stephen c brown
said:
stephen from illinois writes i have used freeads and it done well plus free newspaper free advertising it done some good craigslist is bring people to my page if you would stop by thanks