AllThingsD » Craig Newmark

Craigslist CEO Seeking Anderson Cooper Type for Non-Trashing (And Maybe Coffee?)

Kara Swisher — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:15:45 +0000

Craiglist CEO Jim Buckmaster let one fly yesterday at CNN reporter Amber Lyon for a report on child sex trafficking she did that focused on the role played by the online-classified giant.

It included using a May interview with Craigslist founder Craig Newmark that Buckmaster characterized as an ambush, and he accused Lyon of “mischaracterizing your stunt as a serious interview on this subject.”

He ended by noting that if “[CNN anchor] Anderson Cooper would like to come out to SF and sit with us for an interview worthy of CNN’s viewers, we’ll consider it.”

But Lyon’s bio on the CNN site told a different story:

“Lyon also investigated the sex trafficking of minors on Craigslist. In a CNN exclusive, Lyon brought her findings to the ‘Craig’ in Craigslist, founder Craig Newmark. Her interview left Newmark speechless.”

Actually, Newmark wasn’t exactly speechless, as you can see from the video below–he just declined to answer and was silent, which is quite typical of him.

Nonetheless, San Francisco-based Craigslist has been under serious fire of late from state attorneys general nationwide who are seeking to get Craigslist to voluntarily take down its “adult services” section, which is lucrative, but which they allege is a thinly veiled venue for prostitution.

Today, the Boston Globe posted a tough editorial supporting a voluntary takedown, noting:

“While Craigslist should be lauded for having in place stronger safeguards than many other websites–and the classifieds sections of some newspapers and magazines–the site is, at the end of the day, profiting off of prostitution.”

Ouch.

Currently, the company says it now screens every adult ad before it goes up, which Lyon alleged was not being done effectively.

More to come, obviously, but here’s an open invite for Buckmaster to do a video with BoomTown, although I am nowhere near as glam as Cooper.

Until then, here is one of the CNN videos by Lyon:

And here is the Buckmaster blog:

For Amber Lyon, CNN

I see you’ve now gotten around to requesting an interview with me or a company spokesperson, 90 days after you ambushed our namesake and founder, Craig Newmark, following his May 20th talk on veteran’s affairs and other issues unrelated to craigslist, at a conference in Washington.

You knew Craig was not in management or a company spokesperson, but setting CNN’s ethical code aside, you sidestepped company channels in favor of ambushing our semi-retired founder, complete with a misleading “set up” for your surprise questions. Now that CNN has aired your highly misleading piece dozens of times, mischaracterizing your stunt as a serious interview on this subject, and you’ve updated your “bio” to showcase this rare jewel of investigative journalism, you’re ready to try actually interviewing the company itself on this subject.

There is a class of “journalists” known for gratuitously trashing respected organizations and individuals, ignoring readily available facts in favor of rank sensationalism and self-promotion. They work for tabloid media. Your stunt has veteran news pros we know recoiling in journalistic horror, some of them chalking it up to a decline in CNN’s standards, which is unfortunate.

Seeing how you’ve pinned your career hopes on butchering this story, I’ll have to pass. If Anderson Cooper would like to come out to SF and sit with us for an interview worthy of CNN’s viewers, we’ll consider it.

Jim Buckmaster
CEO, craigslist

Whitman Testifies in EBay-Craigslist Dispute

Jerry A. Dicolo — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:18:15 +0000

Former eBay Inc. Chief Executive Meg Whitman was never aware of any plans by the company to steal any secret information from Craigslist while eBay (EBAY) was a minority stakeholder, Ms. Whitman testified on Monday.

Ms. Whitman, who served as eBay’s CEO from 1998 until 2008 and is now running for governor of California, added that eBay originally had hoped to purchase all of Craigslist; however, she learned it would be impossible to gain a controlling interest without purchasing stock from Craigslist owners Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster.

The comments came on the first day of a trial between eBay and Craigslist, which are fighting about the size of the e-commerce giant’s minority stake in Craigslist, the online classified Web site.

During testimony and cross-examination, Ms. Whitman faced questions related to confidential information eBay received as an investor in Craigslist and how eBay conducted itself while establishing its international classified businesses.

EBay, based in San Jose, Calif., bought a minority stake in Craigslist in 2004 for $32 million, paying half for the shares of Phillip Knowlton, a Craigslist co-owner with Messrs. Newmark and Buckmaster, and half to Craigslist for additional shareholder rights, which included a seat on Craigslist’s board.

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Another Legal Tussle for eBay–And It's Not Skype This Time!–As Former CEO and California Guv Hopeful Whitman Kicks Off Craigslist Trial Monday

Kara Swisher — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 09:33:31 +0000

Auction giant eBay is headed to court again Monday, and for once, it has nothing to do with the litigious Skype co-founders.

Instead, it’s a battle in Delaware with craigslist, the San Francisco online classified powerhouse that eBay holds a minority ownership position in.

That stake is actually precisely what’s at stake. Currently, the San Jose, Calif.-based eBay (EBAY) has a less than 25 percent one, although it had acquired about 28 percent in a deal in 2004.

The company waged a lawsuit last year against the privately held craigslist for diluting its ownership position by issuing more stock and thereby causing eBay to lose its board seat.

That happened, alleges eBay, through a “coercive plan” by craigslist founder Craig Newmark and CEO Jim Buckmaster.

“We have acted in good faith as a minority shareholder,” said eBay spokesman Alan Marks. “We are simply asking the court to restore our original interest in the company.”

I sent a late email to craiglist’s rep and will post the reply if I get one.

Whitman–who is running for the Republican nomination for California governor–takes the stand on opening day Monday to talk about the original deal with craiglist.

She will be followed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.

Of course, craiglist has its own suit in San Francisco, alleging that eBay stole confidential information to create a competing classified service called Kijiji–a dopey name that BoomTown hereby rules someone should be arrested for thinking up–and other misdeeds.

But, so as to be consistent in its awkward legal messes, there is a Skype link: Current Skype President Josh Silverman had been the craigslist board member for eBay and played a key role in developing Kijiji.

Under Whitman’s leadership, ebay also bought Skype, in 2005, and sold a big stake recently.

It was a very controversial sale, which in turn, led to a series of ugly lawsuits from the Skype co-founders, which were just settled last month.

It will be interesting to see what Whitman, who has recently declared that the disastrous Skype acquisition was a good one, says about the craigslist debacle.

Perhaps she’ll say that eBay should have limited its investing during her watch to antiques and other fine collectibles?

Is Google Scary? Not to Silicon Valley, Even at a Party for a Book About How Scary It Could Be!

Kara Swisher — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:21:47 +0000

While at a book party for author Ken Auletta in San Francisco last night, BoomTown took the opportunity to ask those gathered whether they were scared or not of Google and its growing power.

The Auletta book covers a lot about the search giant, but also drills in on how traditional media and advertising, as well as the government, have all become increasingly wary of Google’s hegemony over key businesses on the Web.

But as it turned out, the Silicon Valley types I queried had nothing but attaboys for Google (GOOG). Oddly enough, many mentioned how they love the food served up at the Googleplex.

Here’s the video of the interviews, with scary up-close shots, with investor–including in Google–Ron Conway, almost-not CBS (CBS) Web dude/almost investment dude Quincy Smith, online classified czar Craig Newmark, Slide CEO Max Levchin and Google PR honcho David “I love my Soylent Green” Krane (see pertinent movie video clip below):

[ See post to watch video ]

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

NPR's Honchos Talk Digital at "Think In" in San Francisco (Also, Scoble!)

Kara Swisher — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:14:24 +0000

Last Friday, National Public Radio CEO Vivian Schiller and Digital Media SVP and GM Kinsey WiIson came to San Francisco for a “Digital Think In” to pick the brains of some Silicon Valley types about where the public radio icon should go, digitally speaking.

While NPR actually has been pretty fast-forward with podcasts and a robust Web site, it still has to think about what social networking means to it and whether a day is coming when broadcasting online will be bigger than offline.

Also, what’s up with Twitter?

These and other questions were discussed at frog design Friday with a passel of Web types like investor Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners, Toni Schneider of Automattic, craigslist founder Craig Newmark and LinkedIn founder and Chairman Reid Hoffman.

Also, ubiquitous blogger Robert Scoble, who wants NPR to open itself up like a can of beans.

The Think In participants were charged with making suggestions related to five main topics: Social media and connection to the audience, NPR’s national network of more than 800 stations, the potential of its open API, expansion of platforms and how to diversify its revenue model.

BoomTown always likes crowdsourcing innovation, even among the digital elite.

While at the event in the morning, I talked to Schiller, who came to NPR last year after a stint as general manager of the New York Times online unit, and also to Wilson, who previously worked as executive editor for USA Today and ran its digital efforts before that.

Along with my video interview with them, below, you can check out some more detailed information from the event here.

Here’s my video:

[ See post to watch video ]

News Aggregator Daylife Ties Up With Getty: $4 Million Investment

Peter Kafka — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:32:21 +0000

Daylife, a news aggregator that launched a few years ago with a good deal of hype but has since retreated to the back pages, has landed another investor: Getty Images has bet $4 million on the company, which has raised some $15 million to date.

Getty’s involvement with Daylife is actually several months old. The amount of the investment, but not the investor, was previously disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Daylife announced the deal today in conjunction with another Getty tie-up–a deal to create photo-curating tools for online publishers.

Daylife formally launched in January 2007 with a good deal of buzz, due primarily to its high-profile investors, which included the New York Times (NYT), Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and Techcrunch’s Michael Arrington. The initial plan was to create both content-aggregation tools for publishers as well as a destination site, but the latter never took off and is now just a demo site for customers.

CEO Upendra Shardanand says the company has found traction as a white-label aggregation engine, though he won’t disclose revenue for the 26-person company. Clients include Gannett’s (GCI) USA Today, GE’s (GE) USA Networks and News Corp.’s (NWS) Sky News.

[Image credit: Tallest man in the world visits London, via Getty]

Another Way to Describe the Newspaper Crisis: The Craigslist Boom

Peter Kafka — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:00:59 +0000

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.

Comcast's Twitter Guru on Comcastcares' Tipping Point

Andrew LaVallee — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:32:46 +0000

If you’ve read anything about how companies are harnessing Twitter, chances are Frank Eliason, under the name “comcastcares,” has been mentioned.

He calls himself as “a simple customer-service guy” (not unlike Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, who goes by “customer-service representative”) and said at yesterday’s Federated Media conference that his team fields several hundred tweets a day. He receives about 200 private messages a day through the microblogging service, a mix of customer-service issues, spam and feedback on other Comcast Twitterers.

Mr. Eliason has only been with Comcast (CMCSA) for a year and a half, originally managing a small customer-service group at the cable provider’s Philadelphia headquarters. His team tiptoed into social media by contacting bloggers (by phone) who complained about service problems, but watched Twitter for about two months before doing outreach there.

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The End of Newspapers, in Chart Form

Peter Kafka — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:53:13 +0000

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):

Craigslist Founder Calls Social Media Participation Patriotic

Andrew LaVallee — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:40:56 +0000

According to Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, writing reviews and rating services online is becoming a civic act not unlike traditional forms of public service.

Posting information about products and experiences as everyday as hotel stays (”Generally all my reports are shower-related,” he said) helps other people make more educated purchases, he said during a panel session Tuesday, and can ultimately lead to better customer service when large numbers of people weigh in on social-media forums.

“The only way these sites are going to work is if people start participating in the millions and tens of millions,” Mr. Newmark said. “Participating in these sites is an act of compassion, in some sense patriotism.”

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One Classified Ad Web Site To Rule Them All

Eric Savitz — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:12:55 +0000

The evidence continues to mount: Craig Newmark is killing the newspaper industry.

According to new data from Hitwise, traffic to online classified advertising sites increased 84 percent in February from a year ago. The sector has seen positive growth in all but one month over the last three years. And while hardly the only player in the game, the single biggest beneficiary of the trend is Craigslist. According to Hitwise, of the top 100 classified ad Web sites, all but 3 were localized versions of Craigslist.

And the company’s domination is growing: a year ago, 12 of the top 100 were not related to Craigslist.

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Clueless Newspaper Found in Adless Bar

John Paczkowski — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:12:45 +0000

During a 2005 panel discussion about the future of newspapers, a photo of Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark was displayed and attendees were asked whether or not they recognized him or his name. Few did.

Conduct the same experiment today and the results would be much different. Newmark’s name and photo would almost certainly be recognized, and perhaps met with brief attacks of intense terror and apprehension as well. After all, Craigslist has been eating the newspaper industry’s lunch for quite a few years now, just as the broader Internet has been eating its breakfast, dinner and midafternoon pudding cup as well. And neither are leaving much in the way of crumbs as recent metrics show.

Newspaper advertising revenues, which fell almost 8% last year, have fallen another 12% since then, and company reports suggest they will fall 15% more in the next few months. Seems the Internet, which has been siphoning away the newspaper industry’s ad revenue and fragmenting its audience, has bled it to near desanguination.

“Never in my most bearish dreams six months ago did I think we’d be talking about negative 15% numbers against weak comps,” said Goldman Sachs (GS) analyst Peter S. Appert. “I think the probability is very high that there will be a number of examples of individual newspapers and newspaper companies that fall into a loss position. And I think it’s inevitable that there will be closures in this industry, and maybe bankruptcies.”

Kara Visits "The Future of the Internet" Book Party!

Kara Swisher — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:00:29 +0000

This past Saturday night, BoomTown attended the tony San Francisco book party for Jonathan Zittrain’s new book, “The Future of the Internet–And How to Stop It.”

It was hosted by megablogger Arianna Huffington and Melanie Ellison, an old friend of Zittrain’s from high school, as it turned out.

And BoomTown took our Flip video camera, of course.

For one, it was held at Ellison’s stunning Pacific Heights home, with a lot of Internet and San Francisco wattage in attendance, including Melanie’s husband, Larry Ellison, and Mayor Gavin Newsom.

By the way, Zittrain is professor of Internet governance and regulation at Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University, and co-founder of Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

And the book is actually not about stopping the Web–perish the thought, as what would I do with my life without my beloved Internet, which I would marry if it were legal?

Instead, according to Zittrain, my beloved Web is in deep, deep trouble!

He is justifiably worried about innovation continuing and the book is a bracing call to fix some of the Internet’s serious structural and other problems, before it collapses in a giant heap of too-tightly controlled mundanity.

I’m for that! Let Web Wackiness Worldwide (WWW!) reign!

In that spirit, here is a video of the party, in which I ask everyone the key question: What is the future of the Internet?

The video includes some book party speeches and thoughts from Craigslist’s Craig Newmark, Jim Steyer of Common Sense Media, Accel Partners’ Jim Breyer, Techdirt’s Mike Masnick, Zittrain and, of course, Huffington (and I also got her to impersonate Tracey Ullman impersonating Arianna to up the wacky quotient) .

And also three Internet clowns trying to impersonate me. Wackier still!

Here’s the video (there is an odd voice/video disconnect in the Zittrain and clown sections at the very end that I am trying to fix):

[ See post to watch video ]