Guardian Unlimited: Craig Newmark has already revolutionised classified advertising in the US with his hugely successful website, craigslist.comorg. Now he is planning to shake up journalism, which he says has “lost the trust” of the public.
The founder of the free classifieds site – the seventh most popular website in the US in terms of page views – is to launch a major online journalism project within three months that will copy his “wisdom of the masses” approach to advertising and apply it to journalism.
“Things do need to change,” Mr Newmark said. “The big issue in the US is that newspapers are afraid to talk truth to power. The White House press corps don’t speak the truth to power – they are frightened to lose access they don’t have anyway.”
Craigslist, which began in 1994 in the San Francisco Bay area as an information service, decides its business strategy almost entirely by following up on the complaints and suggestions of its users.
