Comments on: Video Killed the Radio Star: Death of a Paper http://www.100eyes.org/2009/03/video-killed-the-radio/ Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:03:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Andy http://www.100eyes.org/2009/03/video-killed-the-radio/#comment-79 Andy Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:58:38 +0000 http://www.100eyes.org/?p=405#comment-79 It surprised me to learn that Craigslist had a huge impact here on the newspaper business, and that the losses of classified ads here in the US was the root cause of the demise of the industry. Quoting Information Week: "Popular community web site Craigslist, which launched in the mid-1990s, has cost newspapers in the San Francisco Bay area from $50 million to $65 million in employment advertising revenue, a consulting group said Monday. The non-profit site has also cost newspapers millions of dollars more in merchandise, real estate and other traditional classified advertising businesses, Classified Intelligence LLC said in a recent report on the self-service site's impact. Craigslist, which is a quarter owned by EBay Inc., has grown to a billion page-views a month." It surprised me to learn that Craigslist had a huge impact here on the newspaper business, and that the losses of classified ads here in the US was the root cause of the demise of the industry. Quoting Information Week:

“Popular community web site Craigslist, which launched in the mid-1990s, has cost newspapers in the San Francisco Bay area from $50 million to $65 million in employment advertising revenue, a consulting group said Monday.
The non-profit site has also cost newspapers millions of dollars more in merchandise, real estate and other traditional classified advertising businesses, Classified Intelligence LLC said in a recent report on the self-service site’s impact. Craigslist, which is a quarter owned by EBay Inc., has grown to a billion page-views a month.”

]]> By: Daniel http://www.100eyes.org/2009/03/video-killed-the-radio/#comment-71 Daniel Sun, 29 Mar 2009 07:22:47 +0000 http://www.100eyes.org/?p=405#comment-71 "...lopping away content and features readers had come to expect. The rationale the industry used was that readers could and would get that information elsewhere, especially online, so why waste valuable print real estate on them?" Treat your customer like an idiot and they will walk away eventually. The Internet isn't the sole slayer of the newspaper industry, as mentioned, it's just bad business. Here in South Africa, the Internet is still a luxury item. It costs more to get online here than anywhere else, so people still rely on papers as a source of news. I heard a brilliant comment from a picture editor the other week, who shall remain nameless, and it was "we just pull images from the wire for a story, why hire a freelancer when i can click click click and kinda get what i want?" that sums it up to be honest. why should customers really support companies who just don't give a damn about them. “…lopping away content and features readers had come to expect. The rationale the industry used was that readers could and would get that information elsewhere, especially online, so why waste valuable print real estate on them?”

Treat your customer like an idiot and they will walk away eventually. The Internet isn’t the sole slayer of the newspaper industry, as mentioned, it’s just bad business.

Here in South Africa, the Internet is still a luxury item. It costs more to get online here than anywhere else, so people still rely on papers as a source of news.

I heard a brilliant comment from a picture editor the other week, who shall remain nameless, and it was “we just pull images from the wire for a story, why hire a freelancer when i can click click click and kinda get what i want?”

that sums it up to be honest. why should customers really support companies who just don’t give a damn about them.

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