cover
story
Craig’s
other
list
WE ASKED Craig Newmar
for his top five principles
for a successful start-up.
His list:
1. Obsess about customer
service.
2. Listen to your customers. Then act on that.
3. Give your staff the
power to improve your
business. Don’t get in
the way.
4. Minimize hierarchy.
People usually tell their
boss what the boss
wants to hear. Then the
boss tells his boss what
he or she wants to hear,
which inevitably leads
management to make
bad decisions.
5. Did I mention obsess
about customer service?
—LAK
k
career at IBM in Pittsburgh. (He moved to San changed the classified-ad business model, says Peter
Francisco to work at Schwab in 1993.) “Like the M. Zollman, founder of Classified Intelligence LLC,
other guys, I had a bunch of suits that were either a consultancy in classified advertising based near
blue, gray or blue-gray,” he says. “I had a tendency to Orlando, Florida. To document that impact, in late
hang out with the geekier guys.” 2004 Zollman’s firm released a report on the impact
Newmark’s circle of friends now gathers at a of craigslist on local newspaper classified-adrevenue
coffeehouse by his home in Cole Valley, near Haight- in certain categories in the San Francisco area.
Ashbury. He is fond of Bob the cat, who lives at his According to Zollman’s research, in the Bay Area
favorite coffeehouse, Reverie, and occasionally alone, craigslist has cost local newspapers between
appears in photos on his blog,
www.cnewmark.com. $50 million to $65 million a year in job placement
When he started craigslist, his goal was to “give ads. Adding other categories, Zollman estimates the
something back to the community,” Newmark says. total impact in the Bay Area is probably closer to
“Over time, people in the community suggested $100 million annually.
more cities and more categories.” Defining moments Nationally, Zollman says, newspaper classified-
came in late 1997, when the site received a million advertising revenues continue to increase because
page views in a month and Newmark turned down people still look in the newspaper to buy a car, find
a lucrative offer to run banner ads, explaining, “They a job and buy a house. But that could change soon.
are often dumb and can slow down a site.” “The impact has not yet hit newspapers fully
After all these years, he remains passionate because craigslist has not been universal,” says
about craigslist. Racist postings or scam attempts on Zollman. “It’s only expanded out into the entire
the bulletin boards anger him. Alternatively, he is country within the last year and a half.”
thrilled when couples who met through craigslist
get married (he doesn’t keep track of how many) or The Web of the future
when someone retrieves a lost item, such as an iPod Looking forward to the future of the Internet,
lost in the New York City subway that a craigslister Newmark comments, “The usage just keeps getting
returned to its rightful owner. better and better.” He considers newer Web innova-
tions, such as Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, as
Changing the ad business “the repository for our times.” And, as an avid blog-
The impact of craigslist is reaching beyond peo- ger, he calls blogs the “printing press for everyman”
ple looking for new jobs, cars, pets or partners. In and advocates blogging as a user-friendly way to co-
particular, it’s hitting the newspaper business. brand a company online. “With the right blogging
In the past three to five years, craigslist has tool,” he says, “you don’t need to know any technol-
ogy to publish.”
In his spare time, Newmark
has a few pet projects, including
working to combat what he calls
disinformation. He is collaborating
with commentator Jeff Jarvis
( buzzmachine.com) and Upendra
Shardanand, an expert in “
filtering” of online information, to find
ways to deliver what he calls “the
most trusted versions of news.” He
is also in discussions with the
Center for Public Integrity to help
promote their reporting on alleged
political corruption.
With all the success of craigslist, what’s next for Craig Newmark? “Nothing in particular,” he
says. But like a goofy superhero in
need of a turbo boost, he adds, “I
am considering caffeine addiction.
I need to become thoroughly
habituated.” C
Craig Newmark and Jim
Buckmaster, craigslist
CEO: Their site gets 700
hits every second.
Lisa Alcalay Klug, a frequent
contributor to The Connection,
has written for The New York
Times, The Jerusalem Post and
other publications.
GENE X HWANG/ORANGE PHOTOGRAPHY
