OT Have you noticed the MSM is attacking Craig's List?

I have asked around for explanations, and the best I have heard is that Craig's list is driving newspapers out of business, and so the news media is attacking back.

Reply to
clarkmagnuson
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" snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com" wrote in rec.crafts.metalworking:

Newspapers and magazines live or die by their advertising revenue - NOT their circulation.

Reply to
Eregon

This is kinda like the post office wanting to tax e-mail.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

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Reply to
guillemd

"Bob La Londe" wrote in rec.crafts.metalworking:

Who do you think was behind the move (a few years ago) to do exactly that?

Besides which, most of the USPS money comes from bulk mailers (advertisers, billing, etc.) but they continue to raise postage rates for private citizens who supply only a tiny fraction of their business.

BTW, there's another postal rate hike coming May 1, 2009.

Reply to
Eregon

I wouldn't say whether that's the papers' motivation, but it does seem that CL is really hurting them. Personal example: I used to advertise in the local paper when I had an apartment for rent. The last time I did that it was $50 for a 4 line ad, per week. The Boston Globe rate was even higher. Now I use CL.

Not a newspaper, but there was a local stuff-for-sale weekly (The Want Advertiser) that charged 10% of the sale price. It was big - maybe 100 pages, 8 x 10. They have just gone out of business, after 45 years (at least).

Bob

Reply to
Bob Engelhardt

I'd be delighted to pay 1 or 2 cents each for email, if the spammers did too.

Reply to
Tim

I haven't heard that. Ebay owns a piece and they are a bit left politically.

Wes

-- In her book "Atlas Shrugged", first published in 1957, Ayn Rand warned us about the society we find ourselves in. We were warned.

Reply to
Wes

"Eregon" wrote: Newspapers and magazines live or die by their advertising revenue - NOT

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Yeah, but their advertising rates are based on their circulation.

Reply to
Leo Lichtman

"Leo Lichtman" wrote in rec.crafts.metalworking:

But when the advertisers quit advertising...

Reply to
Eregon

Correct...just as radio and television survive on advertisements.

If you want something for free or almost so, someone else has to subsidize it.

Entertainment, music, news, information....it all costs money.

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Perhaps, but just a tiny fraction of what we are expected to pay for it.

Reply to
Tim

But their ad pricing is tied to their circulation numbers.

Reply to
RB

Newspapers make a lot of money with classified ads.

Reply to
Maxwell Lol

Well they did, I think that is rapidly becoming a *former* profit center.

Reply to
Wes

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