Craigslist, the free online-classified service that strikes terror in the hearts of newspaper advertising executives, debuted last week in Springfield.
Previously local Craigslist aficionados had to go to St. Louis or Chicago home pages to find goods, services, or new friends, but Craigslist last week started up a page for Springfield and 99 other cities around the nation, increasing its target audience by 50 percent.
The response so far has been less than overwhelming.
The first ad was posted June 19 by a Californian who’ll be here in a couple of weeks for a visit and wants to find a pickup soccer game. We seem to be a lonely bunch in Springfield; at the end of last week, personal ads outnumbered ads in any other category, with men looking for other men especially hungry for companionship. (Confidential to Needing More: You might get more responses if you stated your sex. And to w4m-26: the “Missed Connections” category generally applies to folks who want to contact would-be romantic interests, not the bicyclist to whom you say, “I’m really sorry my bumper missed the connection with your face.”)
By Wednesday of this week, however, Springfield appeared to be getting the hang of things. Although there were still more than a dozen ads posted by out-of-towners willing to ship goods, you could find babysitting services, furniture, and a car offered by local sellers. Two years ago, Craigslist had 75 sites, including some for communities overseas. With last week’s expansion, Craigslist now has sites for 300 cities. Although growth has been explosive since 2000, the number of people visiting Craigslist has leveled off in the past six months or so, according to Alexa.com, an online service that measures the popularity of Web sites. Reached by e-mail, a Craigslist spokeswoman declined to say whether the company expects to get more business simply by posting more home pages. The new pages in Springfield and other cities — including Rockford, Peoria, and Champaign-Urbana — “were launched based on user requests for Craigslist sites in those areas,” she says, without elaborating.
Craig Newmark of San Francisco launched Craigslist as a hobby in 1995 and made it his full-time job four years later. Known for its lack of banner ads and homemade look, the site is the seventh most popular Internet destination in the United States, sandwiched between Amazon.com and CNN.com. Relying exclusively on word of mouth to gain users, Craigslist makes money by charging businesses in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco for help-wanted ads. Everything else (with the exception of real-estate listings in New York) is free. The company, which has a nonprofit foundation, says that philanthropy and community service are more important than making money.
As a privately owned company, Craigslist does not release financial figures, but experts believe that it took in about $25 million last year. Conversely, newspapers in communities served by Craigslist have seen millions of dollars in classified revenue disappear into cyberspace. Bay Area newspapers alone have lost as much as $65 million a year in help-wanted revenue to Craigslist, according to a 2004 study by Classified Intelligence, a classified-industry consulting group.
Big numbers. It’s too early to say how much of a dent Craigslist might put in the Springfield market, where the State Journal-Register charges as much as $31 for a three-line ad that runs for a week, with no chance to post photos of merchandise (Craigslist advertisers can post four photos). The Springfield Shopper, a free newspaper devoted to classified advertising, hasn’t heard of Craigslist.
“Inform me,” says Teri Hill, general manager of the Shopper. Told of Craigslist’s business model and the fact the company offers free ads, Hill says that she’s concerned. “We’re talking major concerns, yes,” she says. “That’s our niche, classifieds. Our average ad costs $5 — but free is more reasonable than $5, to be quite honest.”
Sharon Whalen, publisher of Illinois Times, says that classifieds have always been about people communicating directly with other people. “That’s what Craigslist is: It takes out the middleman,” she says. Noting that Illinois Times began offering free online classifieds in November, she says that Craigslist is more troublesome to newspapers that haven’t adapted to the Internet.
“It is absolutely a threat to daily newspapers and anyone who relies on paid classified advertising for revenue,” she says.
Previously local Craigslist aficionados had to go to St. Louis or Chicago home pages to find goods, services, or new friends, but Craigslist last week started up a page for Springfield and 99 other cities around the nation, increasing its target audience by 50 percent.
The response so far has been less than overwhelming.
The first ad was posted June 19 by a Californian who’ll be here in a couple of weeks for a visit and wants to find a pickup soccer game. We seem to be a lonely bunch in Springfield; at the end of last week, personal ads outnumbered ads in any other category, with men looking for other men especially hungry for companionship. (Confidential to Needing More: You might get more responses if you stated your sex. And to w4m-26: the “Missed Connections” category generally applies to folks who want to contact would-be romantic interests, not the bicyclist to whom you say, “I’m really sorry my bumper missed the connection with your face.”)
By Wednesday of this week, however, Springfield appeared to be getting the hang of things. Although there were still more than a dozen ads posted by out-of-towners willing to ship goods, you could find babysitting services, furniture, and a car offered by local sellers. Two years ago, Craigslist had 75 sites, including some for communities overseas. With last week’s expansion, Craigslist now has sites for 300 cities. Although growth has been explosive since 2000, the number of people visiting Craigslist has leveled off in the past six months or so, according to Alexa.com, an online service that measures the popularity of Web sites. Reached by e-mail, a Craigslist spokeswoman declined to say whether the company expects to get more business simply by posting more home pages. The new pages in Springfield and other cities — including Rockford, Peoria, and Champaign-Urbana — “were launched based on user requests for Craigslist sites in those areas,” she says, without elaborating.
Craig Newmark of San Francisco launched Craigslist as a hobby in 1995 and made it his full-time job four years later. Known for its lack of banner ads and homemade look, the site is the seventh most popular Internet destination in the United States, sandwiched between Amazon.com and CNN.com. Relying exclusively on word of mouth to gain users, Craigslist makes money by charging businesses in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco for help-wanted ads. Everything else (with the exception of real-estate listings in New York) is free. The company, which has a nonprofit foundation, says that philanthropy and community service are more important than making money.
As a privately owned company, Craigslist does not release financial figures, but experts believe that it took in about $25 million last year. Conversely, newspapers in communities served by Craigslist have seen millions of dollars in classified revenue disappear into cyberspace. Bay Area newspapers alone have lost as much as $65 million a year in help-wanted revenue to Craigslist, according to a 2004 study by Classified Intelligence, a classified-industry consulting group.
Big numbers. It’s too early to say how much of a dent Craigslist might put in the Springfield market, where the State Journal-Register charges as much as $31 for a three-line ad that runs for a week, with no chance to post photos of merchandise (Craigslist advertisers can post four photos). The Springfield Shopper, a free newspaper devoted to classified advertising, hasn’t heard of Craigslist.
“Inform me,” says Teri Hill, general manager of the Shopper. Told of Craigslist’s business model and the fact the company offers free ads, Hill says that she’s concerned. “We’re talking major concerns, yes,” she says. “That’s our niche, classifieds. Our average ad costs $5 — but free is more reasonable than $5, to be quite honest.”
Sharon Whalen, publisher of Illinois Times, says that classifieds have always been about people communicating directly with other people. “That’s what Craigslist is: It takes out the middleman,” she says. Noting that Illinois Times began offering free online classifieds in November, she says that Craigslist is more troublesome to newspapers that haven’t adapted to the Internet.
“It is absolutely a threat to daily newspapers and anyone who relies on paid classified advertising for revenue,” she says.
