Another Way to Describe the Newspaper Crisis: The Craigslist Boom
by Peter Kafka
Posted on June 10, 2009 at 5:00 AM PT
More fuel for the “Google (GOOG) didn’t kill newspapers, Craigslist did” meme: A report that says the online listings service has seen revenue jump 23 percent this year and will end up booking $100 million–even as the newspaper classifieds business falls off a cliff.
Craig Newmark’s Internet classifieds site is mostly, but not entirely, free–it charges for a handful of listing categories, like real estate and employment. But that’s enough to create a very healthy business, says AIM Group, which has been estimating Craigslist numbers since 2003, when it said the company booked $7 million.
Trying to imagine what that would look like on a line graph? Here’s a suggestion–take the chart below and turn it upside down.
