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Newmark's new project? That's classified...

Posted: 30/11/05 By: Jemima Kiss
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Classifieds site Craigslist founder Craig Newmark is still tight-lipped about the new citizen journalism project he has invested in.

Following last week's MediaGuardian report, Jeff Jarvis clarified the project on his blog:

"Our goal is to create a platform to organise the world’s news using the best of technology, community, and editors.

"We see an explosion of interest in, and coverage of, news from incredibly varied sources around the world and see a need around that."

The project is still in stealth mode with a beta version set for next spring, so the full extent of Mr Newmark's involvement is as yet unknown.

He is acting independently of Craigslist, but his expertise in creating and responding to the needs of an online community could be crucial. Furthermore, the distinctive simplicity and trustworthy environment of the Craigslist site is ideally suited to a news model.

Mr Newmark was unwilling to comment on the project directly, but he was prepared to discuss the likely future of newspapers.

"I don't think newspapers will be very different in 20 years' time, except they will engage the community, including fact checking and research, and probably be delivered both on paper and electronically."

He agreed that newspapers need to do more to develop their readership communities.

"Networks of trust will help people find the most trustworthy versions of current stories," he said.

And trust can be restored in part, he said, by what he calls "speaking truth to power".

As for Classified Intelligence's estimate that Craigslist has undermined the US classified advertising market by as much as $50 million with its free adverts, Mr Newmark said that figure is exaggerated.

"Industry analysts tell me that bigger issues include niche classifieds papers (like Pennysaver and AutoTrader) and the erosion of trust. We get many adverts that would never be published."

Meanwhile, jobs on the new citizen media project will be advertised online. Where else but on Craigslist, of course.

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More news from journalism.co.uk:
Craigslist head confirms citizen journalism project
Papers chase web ads
Citizen journalism: Dealing with dinosaurs

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