Posted on 11/05/2005 11:10:39 PM PST by nickcarraway
Craigslist's founder wants to change the news paradigm with high-tech grassroots journalism
Interviewed by John McManus
Craig Newmark is an entrepreneur whose no-frills Web listing service, Craigslist.org, has since 1995 come to dominate the classified advertising market in the Bay Area and dozens of other cities around the world. By offering almost all services for free, he may well be responsible for depriving newspapers such as the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News of millions of dollars a year in advertising.
Even as traditional sources of news -- or "mainstream media" -- struggle to compete with the Internet, however, Mr. Newmark isn't putting much faith in their ability to safeguard the republic. After adding robust discussion forums and his own personal Web log, Mr. Newmark (whose unique official title is "customer service representative and founder") is now using his prominence to advocate for the creation of alternative news media technologies that allow ordinary news consumers to become news producers.
He spoke with John McManus at his favorite cafe in San Francisco's Cole Valley neighborhood, where he lives.
Q:I've read that you're interested in journalism and where it's going now.
A:The country is in some trouble, because the media, which is supposed to provide a check and balance on government, has decided to stop doing that as a collective entity. There's a good article on that in Salon, especially focusing on the White House press corps, which is possibly the hub of the news business in this country. With the exception of the efforts of Helen Thomas, no one is taking their job seriously there. Now it could be that they could be under a directive to not do so. We don't know. I've spoken to a lot of journalists now who are very frustrated.
Q:What do you think is causing this ineffectual journalism?
A:My understanding from talking to a lot of people in the business has been that it used to be that a newspaper was considered a community service. Now they're being run as profit centers, and they're trying to get pretty high profit margins. As a result, investigative reporting has been seen as a problem.
Q:Yes, it's very expensive to do, and often angers powerful individuals.
A:A lot of publishers have close relationships with people in power. So the press, which used to speak truth to power, doesn't. The big result of that has been the erosion of trust.
Q:So the lack of trust in the media is well earned in your view?
A:The Cindy Sheehan situation is a great case in point. Her basic point is that she feels the White House should be accountable to the electorate, and she feels that the media should hold the White House accountable. And the media has failed, and the press hasn't really covered that. They've also given coverage to obvious disinformation scams.
Q:So what as a society to we do about that?
A:On the positive side there are a number of efforts to address this. I recently realized that a good example is Wikipedia. It used to be that the victors wrote the history books. With Wikipedia and other efforts, there's a much better chance that ordinary individuals who know what's going on can write the histories, and that's a major change in the way news and history are written -- and notice I'm bringing together both.
Q:Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that's open to revision by the public. But the news is generally about what happens today or this week -- what are the current issues. My guess is the average person doesn't turn to Wikipedia in the morning as a substitute for listening to the radio or reading the newspaper.
A:Wikipedia is already accomplishing a lot, but I think its potential is only starting to happen.
Q:What other efforts to address the problems in journalism do you see as hopeful?
A:There's a lot of good community journalism efforts. Backfence comes to mind, the one in Bakersfield and Dan Gillmor's efforts. Dan is also very connected to all these efforts. So is Jeff Jarvis. Jeff knows a lot about efforts that are going on, especially efforts that no one can talk about yet.
Q:Do you see that kind of community journalism, where average people go out and report the news, as a good substitute for what's going on now? A corrective?
A:Yes. I do think professional and citizen journalism will blur together, because we will find that some amateurs are as talented as a professional journalist. Plus, if you have thousands or millions of people doing fact-checking, that's a big deal. I'm a dilettante in this matter, and my contribution may just be to make noise and stop talking. I'm hoping that in these emerging efforts, people are talking to each other, and form networks. I think we have a tipping point coming in journalism but I want it to come faster.
Q:There are considerable problems we face in any of these alternative models of doing media. For example, one of the key questions that Dan Gillmor has to face with citizen journalism is: If people don't trust professional reporters to go out and get the story of, say, what happened at a PTA meeting or a city council, are they going to trust someone who is -- a parent, perhaps -- who has an agenda and is not a trained writer or investigator and feels no compunction to disclose their conflicts of interest?
A:People will take it with a grain of salt. But as pieces accumulate, as the mechanisms accumulate, people will discover who seem to be the trustworthy writers, and go with them. With what people are doing with reputation mechanisms -- Wikipedia is doing the same thing without a reputation system, and they seem to be succeeding -- they need to understand that better. But I'm hoping to meet with Jimmy Wales soon, he's the guy who's behind Wikimedia.
Q:So you're hopeful that not too long from now, some new way of creating a community-service form of news will emerge from the various efforts that are underway at this point, or various efforts that might be launched in their wake?
A:I think the efforts are emerging. Of the ones we're seeing now, plus some in stealth mode, a chunk of them will succeed. And all you need is one, and then everything changes. That might be taken as a model that might be reproduced elsewhere. There's OhMyNews that's already a success in Korea, and Korea is one of countries taking the lead in broadband penetration.
Q:Which of these do you see as the most promising -- of the ones you know about -- among the efforts to bring news back to its true character?
A:I don't know. All of these efforts are good technologically. But technology is the easy part. The hard part relates to trust and just getting people to use them. All I know is what's happened with Craigslist. My perspective is pretty narrow.
Q:Are you at this point investing in any of these endeavors?
A:Could be. If I were to make a significant contribution to Wikipedia, for example, given that it is a journalism effort, ultimately, would that be considered an investment?
Q:I would say so.
A:I would appreciate that. But I can't announce anything at the moment, prematurely, given that I have to keep my people in the loop. I owe it to them. We'll see.
Q:Are there any other uses of technology to make news better that you've heard of or dreamed about?
A:I do think a big technology is maybe is the kind of flexible screen that you can roll out of your cell phone or some kind of other flexible device. I think three companies are predicting mass markets for these in the next several years. That could be interesting. Hook it up to cell-phone or Wi-Fi technology. In 10 years they may be big enough to be your TV.
What planet is this man living on? helen thomas? cindy sheehan?
OMG!!! NO!!!! He's a Shee-ite!!! Credibility? Lost!!!!
And the media has failed, and the press hasn't really covered that. They've also given coverage to obvious disinformation scams.
He should be more specific here. What "disinformation scams"?
Billthedrill writes:
"Mr. Newmark has a lot to learn. Cindy Sheehan, for example, was largely a creature born and nurtured by the media. The issue isn't that the MSM has abrogated its mission in search of corporate profits, it's that it is pursuing another mission for which it was never intended, that of advocacy and propaganda."
Well, my take on the LM (Liberal Media), is that they cover all protesters as heartfelt Americans wanting change, just wanting Americans stop dying and to come home. The truth being they'd love our defeat. The organizers of these "peace" rallies are America haters with socialist and communist totalitarian agendas. They want us to lose the Iraqi war effort. So 'splain that Mr. Newmark!
It'd be nice to hear about the evil intentions and backgrounds of these innocent (as covered) peace rally leaders and protesters.
And this guy doesn't know the economics of community newspapers if he's unaware that many of the reporters for them qualify for foodstamps, things are so tight.
And if he thinks that there's nothing lost when we lose our small community papers to the big MSM, then that's because he isn't really too concerned about the bias in the MSM.
A little liberal? Sorry, that's "over the top" liberal. It's time for some conservative to set up the same type of service...
And what is that?! I see alternative news analysis outlets, but I haven't seen an alternative news source pop up yet. It takes expense to set up a network of effective reporters "on the ground," and time for them to gain access to places where they are effective, and even his "citizen reporters" will not be able to do that as well as full-time reporters who can gain the trust of sources, etc.
Woo-Hoo, Power to the People and all, but when it comes down to it, it's only the Left who has the networks...the Right has been sitting on its fat butt taking pot shots on the analysis side of things (Talk Radio, FR, etc.) without taking on this other important side of the business. Anyone who has ever seen something that's been reported can appreciate how essential good reporting is.
Your analysis of FR is therefore incorrect.
He's from Cole Valley - I used to see him every day at the coffee shop and around the area. For those of you who don't know, I used to live there until around 6 months ago when I moved to Arizona.
A lot of the "uber liberal" bloggers - the "technoratis" of the great 90's internet time - live right there in Cole Valley. It's an area that is around 4 square blocks and butts up to the Haight Ashbury cross streets.
So, no surprises there. Most people have no clue what it's like there but it's the origin for a lot of the internet "liberal left". I used to see it every day, used to listen to it everyday, and then I left it out of disgust. I'm the only one I know of who actually voted Republican in all of Cole Valley, and you can pretty much take that to the bank. Ask most people who work at Tully's and they will know exactly who I am, and whom I voted for.
Absolutely nothing new about this. My cousin lives right up the street from Craig, btw, and he's of the same persuasion. I never saw eye to eye with him or his friends, though he is and was a good cousin to me.
So, the next time you hear "Cole Valley", remember that since I'm no longer living there, that you can bet they are on the left.
And I mean that literally.
BTW, if you DO have a friend in Cole Valley who also voted the other way, please mail me and let me know. I'd love to know that I was not the only one. But as far as I can tell, I was.
I think I made history or something. It was a great feeling when I gloated last November.
Everyone knew.
Of course, including things like the MD4BUSH saga, WRAMC events, etc., but it's very limited. Surely you can't compare FR with a reporting network as a news source.
If you want to hire a young kid for a position, Craigslist is it until a new hip site pops up.
Craigslist better than Monster? Are you only talking about young kids?
I don't expect any rational thought from the San Francisco area!
This paragraph right here represents a complete inability to grasp reality on the part of these butt clowns. All you have to do is watch the AP wire and compare the original wire stories with what actually gets published to see this guy has absolutely NO clue about what is really going on. This is just more of the Moveon.org disinformation campaign. They know the Dinosaur Media is their lap dog. To keep any serious discuss of the transparent Leftist bias in the Dinosaur Media, Moveon.org stooges like this guy run around screaming about "the Conservative Media" in order to obfuscate the REAL problems the Dinosaur Media has with intellectual credibility.
He's a leftwing whacko. "Nuff said.
Craig's List founder on journalism PING.
Don't get taken in by this guy. While we all applaud the benefits of the internet, people with his thinking will be the biggest advocates of elitism, revisionist history and social tyranny.
I am shocked that he is a Bay Area resident!
I got my last job from a posting on Craigslist. Technical computer stuff, but a job nonetheless.
We've had FREEP reports about Crazy Cindy Sheehan in Texas, both of President Bush's inaugurals, reports from people directly in the way of hurricanes in Florida, LA., Miss., Texas, blizzards,and the like. On the ground reports from people, both military and not, reporting about what it's REALLY like in Iraq, as well as from posters who are parents /family members of those there, sharing what they've been told.
FR also posts birth, engagement, wedding, and death announcements.
And then there were the law suits.........not a single newspaper ever got those facts correct.
Obviously, you either don't know as much about FR as you think you do, or are unwilling to give FR its due.
I never claimed that FR had completely replaces the MSM...just that Craig thinks that he is on the cutting edge, suggesting that something akin to FR should exist, when it already does.
LOL! You think this is my first screenname here? You think I didn't lurk, too? You make silly assumptions for someone who's been here so long.
I'm well aware of all that you mention, and if you want to continue to believe that represents a full reporting network, then be my guest. I'll continue realizing that what we have is a supplement, but not primary. People report on what's not hit by the MSM, but won't often take the time to provide the everyday coverage for free...so you get a biased sample of "out of the mainstream" reporting if there's nobody paying the bills. If not, then why not volunteer to do reporting for free for your local paper?
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