Craigslist.org offers Harrisburg page among its many Internet sites
Monday, July 25, 2005
BY DAVID DeKOK
Of The Patriot-News
Craigslist.org has come to Harrisburg.
The company's description of Craigslist is: "Local community classifieds and forums -- a place to find a job, housing, goods & services, a social life, advice and just about anything else."
In June, Harrisburg became one of 170 Craigslist sites in 34 countries, as did Jerusalem; Bangkok; Dayton, Ohio; Grand Rapids, Mich.; West Virginia; and a bunch of other places. Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Allentown also have sites at
www.craigslist.org.
"They've grown very quickly and proven themselves very successful in markets out in California," said Tim Williams, executive director of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, a trade group that monitors trends in the newspaper industry. "I think they have like 28 employees."
All Craigslist pages look the same, but the number of ads, which are free in most markets, and their content differ greatly by city.
The two categories that tend to draw the most ads are the help-wanteds and the personals. San Francisco-based Craigslist charges for help-wanted ads in a few large markets, but not Harrisburg. That's how it makes its money.
Some of the text and photos in the Craigslist personal ads can get graphic, including photos of male private parts on the "Men seeking Men" and "Casual Encounters" pages.
In the "Missed Connection" section, people try to hook up with that man or woman they spotted across a bar. Or the "Rants and Raves" section, which has several running arguments, one of which is on whether Harrisburg is an OK place to live -- or not.
Some of the classified ads compete with those that run in newspapers such as The Patriot-News; others do not. Craigslist is said to have seriously hurt the classified-ad revenue of the San Francisco newspapers, in particular.
"Newspapers will have to look at changing their current model for classifieds," Williams said. "They may have to reduce prices, or post online ads for free. Or maybe make them totally free for private parties."
Most newspapers in Pennsylvania also have Web sites that include paid classifieds, including The Patriot-News site at
www.pennlive.com.
Although the newspaper industry has adapted to the Web, it does so slowly, Williams said.
"The Internet has had a powerful impact on newspapers," Williams said. "As an industry, we probably didn't move fast enough to change our business model to incorporate it."
Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster says fraudulent postings -- from Nigerian money-laundering scams to solicitations for multilevel-marketing pyramids -- represent less than one-tenth of 1 percent of listings. But the New York section, for example, has been found rife with con artists.
Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist.org, no longer runs the operation but remains one of three board members.