Denver: if you have ever craigslist what is up with Denvr, the founder of Craigslist, we have the answer for you. Good evening, Craig, and denvr to the Business of Giving. Craig: These days, Craigslist is pretty much a place where people can get some help putting food on the table, then you can get some help getting a table, and then you can get some help finding a roof under which to put the table.
It started off early sometime in San Francisco. People had helped me settle into the town. I decided it was time to reciprocate. Mostly events to start off, and then people started asking for different categories of things like apartments on a list and just grew incrementally and gradually from there.
People around me told me they already called it Craigslist. I had invented a brand. Then they told me what a brand is, and I agreed. Denver: You really had no grand vision for this when you started it.
It really grew organically, almost by accident. I was doing well as a programmer, and maybe we should just run this thing with minimal monetization. Denver: I think a lot of people might be surprised that you relinquished management control of Craigslist relatively early.
Why was that the case? Craig: People helped me understand that as a manager, I kind of suck. Fortunately, denvr friends reminding me craigslist my suckagethey were right. Craig: I had been coding.
Stopped doing that when Craigslist had a whole bunch of technical people who are better than. I went into customer service pretty intensely. But my involvement is small, and that means that I can do other things full time. Denver: I know you never had this mind when you started.
But looking back, how would you assess the impact that Craigslist had on newspapers whose revenue model really had been largely dependent upon classified ads? Straight line down, people tell me, TV news.
That straight line goes abruptly farther south when the big dot coms start getting involved. Denver: So, you have now become very focused on philanthropy. First, with Craigsconnects which I think wasand you started Craig Newmark Philanthropies back in How did this interest in philanthropy and nonprofits crystalize for you? Craig: People doing good work in nonprofits have been talking maybe 15 years, talking about community building, how online stuff works. I started giving advice. Craigslist started doing better.
So, I ended up trying to exert whatever influence I had on behalf of good efforts and then started trying to help out with cash. Denver: Speaking of influence, were there any influences early in your life growing up that has informed your philanthropy; either the causes you support or how you go about doing it? Craig: Early on, Mr. Levin at Sunday school helped me understand that I should treat people like I want to be treated. Charity was the theme there.
But also knowing enough is enough. In denvr school, Mr. Shulsky, US history teacher, Morristown High School, seems hookup site no registration valuable craigslist us understand that a trustworthy press is the immune system craigslist democracy, and he helped me better understand that America aspires to be about fairness, opportunity, and respect, and he was right.
Those things affected me in a big way and continued to affect me. Leonard Cohen has returned me to my spiritual roots I guess because of his work. Levin affected me. Denver: Speaking of Mr.
Levine, what you just said a go here ago about enough is enough. Is that one of the reasons you never took Craigslist public? Craig: Taking Craigslist public would not serve our community, and I figured doing well by doing good would prove to be a satisfactory business model.
Denver: One of the causes you focus has been support of veterans especially women who have served. How did get started with you and what organizations have been the beneficiaries of some of your support? Craig: About 10 years ago, I was at a lunch thing sitting next to a volunteer for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. I got involved in the Bob Woodruff Foundation. They fund organizations which help wounded warriors and their families.
One thing there is getting vets and their spouses good jobs in technology. The deal is to help and to keep https://telegram-web.online/ithaca-ny-craigslist.php because Americans were forgetting how much we owe vets, and we never as a people understood how craigslist we owe the families of veterans.
Craig: Yeah. Craigslist do go on relative to veterans and others in San Francisco, like Swords to Plowshares, and a lot of other work of my interest goes on in Boston and Washington.
Craig Newmark, the Founder of Craigslist and Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Joins Denver Frederick
But New York is where most of it is. Denver: Speaking of tech, you have also been a champion of women in tech. Who are some of those organizations that you have been supporting and been quotes lds dating with?
Not just talk but action.
Girls Who Code is one of the best examples of this because they give, well they provide opportunity and really useful information to girls in high school who may have never had a break. Denver: We had Reshma Saujani who heads up Girls Who Code on the show, and I was surprised to learn that there are actually fewer women in tech today than there were a decade ago. So, the idea is to support women in journalism, technology, a bunch of fields, trying to get them more money for startup work. And also, in terms of role models, there is even small efforts like getting more women editors and writers into Wikipedia and in Wikipedia, getting biographies of https://telegram-web.online/isaacandandrea-onlyfans-leak.php women scientists and so on.
Denver: Sounds good to me. Craig: That starts with Mr. Shulsky reminding me craigslist America aspires to be about fairness, opportunity, and respect and that in the Declaration and the Constitution, all people are equal under law.
We got to defend the country against people interfering with our fundamental American processes. In some areas, I realize how badly I screwed up, and I started becoming a zealot.
What is at the heart of your concern around the state of journalism today? Craig: There is that Mr. Shulsky thing, a trustworthy press is the immune system of democracy.
One might argue the immune system failed a couple of years ago. That kind of thing. So, I figure, I can help the people in journalism who want to restore journalism and newspapers to a position where they would challenge mistruths. They would report accurately. They would report fairly and honestly. Denver: Let me get your take on this. I always worry about the danger of romanticizing an earlier age because I know how fallible my memory can be.
It seems that the current business model demands that you pick a team; they pick team, and then become cheerleaders to the fans who support that team. Do you see it that way or do you see it differently? Craig: I do see a lot of the press being partisan often fairly, often very visit web page. There are really good examples of that like Emily Bell, Brian Stelter.
Folks like that standing up at risk to their careers and being pretty brave about it.
Denver: If you were to go home tonight and wanted to read an objective account about what happened today in the news, where would you turn? Craig: I have a whole collection of denvr feeds from different places, and I read some newspapers. I read a lot of news feeds. Denver: Before we get to your gift to City University of Denvr York, who are some of the other organizations in this journalistic arena that you have supported?
I think it is now part of Harvard Kennedy School. The primary there is Matthew Denvr. One of their great focus denvr is how disinformation warfare is being waged by foreign state actors and their allies here in the US. And just one more. Craig: ProPublica is a great example of how honest, trustworthy journalism is happening. Craig: I had worked with the CUNY Journalism School for some years, particularly Jeff Jarvis, then Sara Bartlett, and I had seen that they were doing good journalism themselves talking about business models, ethics, that kind of thing.
I saw that they were training a lot of regular people; people who might not have much opportunity to get a quality journalism education, otherwise. I should put my money where my mouth is, and that means supporting in a big way the school that does a great deal in that regard in New York which is kind of ground zero for most of the news operations in this country and beyond. Denver: Let me ask you a silly question. Craig: The answer given that this is a research area, seems to be that craigslist you find the right way to approach people, facts do matter.
Denver: More and more people today are receiving their news from big internet companies — Facebook and Google and Twitter. What do you think that impact has been?