The End of Newspapers, in Chart Form
by Peter Kafka
Posted on May 22, 2009 at 9:53 AM PT
I’m still not exactly sure why Google (GOOG) has become the chief suspect in the “Who Killed Newspapers” investigation playing out before our very eyes. Because it’s quite clear to me that the real baddie here is bespectacled, mild-mannered Craig Newmark, whose eponymous free service blew up the industry’s most profitable line of business: classified advertising.
Yes, there other players in the online classifieds business, and they cut into the monopoly that newspapers relied upon for decades, too. And some of them, like Monster (MNST) and Yahoo (YHOO), have even tried to ally themselves with newspapers. But all of them charged money for their services. And you can’t compete with free. Just ask the music industry.
Craigslist launched in San Francisco in 1996, but didn’t really start picking up steam until the end of the first Web bubble, which is exactly when the newspaper industry’s classified revenue peaked. See for yourself, via this chart from the Pew Internet & American Life Project (click to enlarge):
Comments
What’s next for journalists and newspapers … see what Hometowntimes.com is doing for reporters, journalist, small business at the community level.
Posted by Paul Baron at May 22nd, 2009 at 8:07 pmJeff’s follow-up Tweet is interesting…
Craigslist didn’t kill newspapers. The market did. It cut out monopoly middlemen & their overpriced ads. http://bit.ly/Xnwgh...
Because that’s we’re currently offering the J-School kids at Berkeley the chance to do – ‘cut out the middlemen and their over-priced ads… by giving them a ‘tool’ that enables them to source and price their own ads; a bottom up, street level solution to a self-publishers needs… in mindset at least, similar to Mr Newmark.
Who needs to be enfeebled by a middle man or a third party when you can be empowered by a tool to do-it-yourself?
http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=291
All the best, etc
Rick
Posted by Rick Waghorn at May 23rd, 2009 at 2:28 amIt’s a shame “papers” can’t figure out a way to make money in new media. Looks like they’re going away if they can’t adapt somehow. I did a video commentary about this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl1HsZpKAdQ
Posted by mike kravinsky at May 26th, 2009 at 12:15 pm