The Death and Life of Classified Ads

Abstract

This chapter traces a media history of craigslist by examining the development of classified and personal ads through the arrival of the digital age. Craigslist has played a key role in the struggle of legacy media like newspapers to stay afloat, disrupting what had previously been an easily overlooked but crucially reliable source of funding. Although it has been compared with a number of things and places over the years—job fair, flea market, local pub—craigslist has always thought of itself as a website for getting classified ads online. The chapter thus defines what classified ads are and why they matter in the context of newspapers, reading publics, and craigslist. Easily overlooked compared with their sexier marketing-ad counterparts, classifieds are actually crucial to the economics of local newspapers, and they also have an important history in allowing regular people to reach a wide audience while retaining their anonymity. Like craigslist, classified ads are simultaneously a tool for local businesses and important links for marginalized communities.