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Craigslist’s Craig Newmark: ‘Outrage Is Profitable. Most Online Outrage Is Faked for Profit’
The founder of the online classifieds site is a survivor from the era of internet optimism. He has given significant sums to protect the future of news — and rejects the idea his website helped cause journalism’s financial crisis.
By David Smith
As the Craig in Craigslist, the free online noticeboard that changed everything, Craig Newmark can surely get his hands on just about anything. His new home in Greenwich Village, New York, contains everything from an ancient Roman mosaic to 18th-century British portraits to Simpsons figurines to artworks by his beloved Leonard Cohen. But something is missing. Something vital.
“We’re low on bird seed now,” Newmark observes anxiously. “That’s a crisis.”
The scale and scope of the crisis become evident when you understand Newmark’s ornithological obsession. During an hour-long conversation, his eye keeps wandering to the small garden where mourning doves, house sparrows, cardinals, blue jays and “a hopefully limited number of pigeons” come and go. Just last night he installed a webcam so he can watch them all remotely. For…
