As an alumnus of the San Francisco Chronicle, I was interested to read this Los Angeles Times story about the travails of San Francisco’s biggest newspaper. Sitting at ground zero of the Craigslist threat, the Chronicle has seen an apparently precipitous decline in its classifieds business.
Times reporter Joseph Menn cites the example of a local employer who got only four responses after paying for a Chronicle help-wanted ad, but more than 400 for a free ad on Craigslist — and subsequently swore off using the newspaper again.
What’s happening, I think, is that the Chronicle
has become the newspaper industry’s “canary in the coal mine.” The
trend toward free classifieds is amplified in San Francisco because of
Craigslist’s strength in its home city. As free classifieds expand via
services such as those from Google and Microsoft get to market (coming
soon) — and Craigslist gains critical mass in yet more cities — what
we’ve seen in San Francisco will be a problem for yet more publishers.
The evolution of classified advertising to the mostly free model seems to be on its way. (Also see my previous item for thoughts on how to make money from free classifieds.)
