Opinion: Readers want to trust the media, and Craig Newmark may help them do just that.Last week Craig Newmark, founder of the uber-successful community site craigslist.org, affirmed that he's involved in a new media venture that, when launched in a few months, will employ a decentralized "wisdom of crowds" approach to journalism.
"The American public has lost a lot of trust in conventional newspaper mechanisms. Mechanisms are now being developed online to correct that," he said, according to the Guardian.
Embellishment was not forthcoming, save for when Newmark made clear to the San Francisco Chronicle that he was only a "minor contributor" to this new effort, and that the venture isn't associated with the Craigslist domain.
But Newmark has more than a passing interest in journalism, and he has the journalism experience to offer a helping hand.
What journalism experience? Well, Craigslist.
I'm not talking about classified ads, even though newspapers seem to think of the site only as that raffish 18-person crew that's managed to steal $50 million in potential ad revenue through low rates and low-rez chicanery.
No, grousing over a free classified ads model is just a distraction from a larger, more important reason that Craigslist is eating away at journalism's bottom line: Craigslist promotes community, and newspapers do not.
Sagacious newspapermen and freshly minted j-schoolers alike will tell you that while papers are historically considered a community service, their job is not to directly promote or provide community. But a new generation of online news consumers will tell you that community is exactly what they want.
"Consumers want to use the two-way nature of the Internet to become active participants themselves in the exchange of news and ideas," said Tom Curley, CEO of the Associated Press in a speech last year to the Online News Association. "The news, as 'lecture,' is giving way to the news as a 'conversation.'"
This revelation is nothing new for the Jay Rosens, Dan Gillmors and JD Lasicas of the world, nor is it news for their regular readers. But old school publishers should take note of Craig Newmark's recent announcement, and then take a hard look at Craigslist.
There's a business model there—masquerading as a social contract—that you might be able to learn from.
Next Page: It's all about trust.
In 2001, Ken Layne dissected erroneous reporting from the Independent and famously wrote on his blog, "we can Fact Check Your Ass."
Since that time, the mainstream media hasn't stopped giving critics plenty more reasons to assume the watchdog stance: Dan Rather's memogate, the shameful ethics of Jason Blair and Stephen Glass, Judith Miller's poor reporting. These are nuanced events and deeds, but the end result is simple: Fewer people trust mainstream media today (37 percent) than they did a few years ago (about 42 percent, numbers according to Gallup).
Craigslist, on the other hand, is successful because it has built hundreds of communities based on trust. While the sellers, buyers, landlords and other posters on Craigslist aren't writing hard news and feature stories, their successful interactions via Craigslist instill a sense of belonging they don't get from print or television.
That sense of belonging, that trust, can be ported to mainstream media through the traditionally suggested channels: blogging, comments, direct interaction with your readers. Craig Newmark has a blog, why don't you?
News sites that promote trust as an integral part of the journalism process are multiplying rapidly. Some of them, like Dan Gillmor's Bayosphere and Mark Potts' Backfence, were founded by reporters who believed they had reached the limits of the way the traditional press worked.
Another new media venture called Newsvine is also coming online in a few months. (Hmm, a coincidence of timing, Mr. Newmark?) According to founder Mike Davidson, Newsvine will combine feeds from the Associated Press and ESPN with reader blogs, comments and stories. Readers will vote on the most interesting stories, thereby promoting or demoting them within the site.
"I think traditional journalists, writers, they spend a week, two weeks, a month, however long they work on an article, and they publish it and that's it. An article's life sort of ends when it's published," Davidson told me in a phone conversation recently. "We feel the opposite. We feel an article's life begins when it's published, and there's a conversation that surrounds it."
Newmark would agree. In an interview earlier this year, he said of citizen journalism efforts: "As pieces accumulate, as the mechanisms accumulate, people will discover who seem to be the trustworthy writers, and go with them."
But if the user trust and conversation argument doesn't convince media traditionalists, perhaps Newsvine's ad model will: User-contributors will receive a share of the revenue generated from ads on the site.
That's a radical departure from the way old media works. If the site performs as advertised, Newsvine will not only deliver the news and remix the news, it will give readers a direct financial stake in seeing that the news is relevant, trustworthy, accurate and fair.
Remember that sense of belonging that Craigslist promoted? Now it comes with a check.
Even the business side of a newspaper will tell you: That's a community worth getting excited about.
Editor's Note: This story was updated to correct a quotation from Newsvine CEO Mike Davidson.
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