The Falling Newspaper Industry: Craigslist to the Rescue?

The human condition demands re-invention in order to accommodate ever-changing life styles, attitudes, demographic patterns and domestic situations. For the centuries-old newspaper industry, it hasn’t been easy to accept the fact that change is needed. After all, they have been around since Johanes Gutenberg invented the printing press back in 1440. It is exactly this complacency that has caused the newspaper industry to fall (and keep falling) on its ear. Will it ever stand straight and tall again? Perhaps in time it will rise again, but not without a revolution within its ranks. Why re-invent the newspaper industry? The newspaper industry has committed a fatal faux pas (no-no and boo-boo might apply less formally) by not keeping up with technology. Leaders failed to “read all about it” in their own newspapers. They never thought their profits would dry up despite their own information that literally screamed of advances in diversification, advertising techniques and the meteoric rise of the Internet as a panacea for all types of classified advertising. Re-invention demands a lot more than just finding new ways to disseminate old content; it means creating completely new products that tap into separate markets.

“The irony of the situation is that the Internet and the Web in general, and Craigslist in particular, should have financially boosted the newspaper industry instead of contributing to its demise.

The irony of the situation is that the Internet and the Web in general, and Craigslist in particular, should have financially boosted the newspaper industry instead of contributing to its demise. Dispersing information via the Web is a lot cheaper than gasoline-guzzling newspaper trucks and the cost of creating and maintaining a website involves a fraction of the expense of effectively running a newspaper. To make matters even worse, the cost of printing and distributing newspapers is sharply on the rise. How can Craigslist help the ailing newspaper industry? Newspapers gave up on classifieds after Craigslist became so popular because they believed that they would never get them back. This however, could not be further from the truth, as nothing is lost forever just as surely as nothing ever stays the same. Technological change is a whole new concept, forcing the re-evaluation of that which was and simply doesn’t work anymore.

“Craigslist’s original claim to fame was that it was easy to use and searchable, allowing for links and photos. It hasn’t changed much since the early 1990s.

Craigslist’s original claim to fame was that it was easy to use and searchable, allowing for links and photos. It hasn’t changed much since the early 1990s and yet it is without a doubt better than any newspaper classified system on the Web. Craigslist has the power to implement a handful of policies that could save the newspaper industry. For one thing, it could allow consumers to place ads on Craigslist via newspaper websites. This would help them regain some of the classified ad revenue they have lost. In the words of an open letter written by Steve Outing on ReinventingClassifieds.com to Craig Newmark & Co: “Allow local newspapers to scrape Craigslist ads…Allow the local newspaper(s) in the cities you serve to include Craigslist ads just from that city, if that makes you more comfortable, in with their own classifieds. Ads from Craigslist would include the Craigslist brand and drive traffic back to the local Craigslist site; that is good for you, in that it exposes your brand to (mostly older) newspaper readers who may not use Craigslist… For the newspapers, adding Craigslist ads into newspaper classifieds sections reinvigorates them. Thus, a newspaper could sell contextual display or banner advertising around it, which might support hiring back some of those lost journalists.” Some of Outing’s other suggestions included:

allowing consumers to place ads on Craigslist via newspaper websites
granting Craigslist the right to charge for some of these ads, increasing their income
benefiting Craigslist users by providing more high quality listings
adding a community news component to Craigslist

Newspaper companies have to become so much more, in the same manner as Apple computers, who rocketed from the brink of bankruptcy to current darling status. Craigslist can help the newspaper industry, but its corporate culture must first be stripped along with executive egos, and completely revamped. There must be no prisoners taken and every aspect of production including mission, products and services must be realistically re-evaluated. The stark reality of this process clearly dictates that newspapers must start making products that have nothing to do with the paper aspect of newspapers.

“If Apple’s name can change from Apple Computers to just Apple, newspapers can find other names to call themselves (besides complacent and stubborn, that is).

If Apple’s name can change from Apple Computers to just Apple, newspapers can find other names to call themselves (besides complacent and stubborn, that is). Executives at Apple realized that they had to be so much more than they were in order to survive and so do the newspapers of this day and age. Here’s to Craig Newmark, his successful list and the newspaper industry. May everyone thrive and not get too…drunk!.

sources: 1) www.jossip.com/dear-craigslist-save-the-newspaper-industry…

2) patthorntonfiles.com/blog/2009/04/06/its-time-to-reinvent-the-newspaper-industry