Two quotes from Jim Buckmaster that remind me why craigslist can be beat:

“It’s unrealistic to say, but — imagine our entire U.S. workforce deployed in units of 20. Each unit of 20 is running a business that tens of millions of people are getting enormous amounts of value out of each month. What kind of world would that be?” (via Susan Mernit)

“The Internet at large, and free classifieds in particular — and even beyond that, Craigslist free classifieds in particular — certainly pose challenges to the newspaper industry as far as being able to raise their profitability over time.” (via Online News Squared)

Craigslist is oh so 2002. The basic self-referential, socialistic culture that seems to pervade craigslist is what keeps the company from innovating. Oh, sure, the company keeps expanding, but I’m not convinced that in most markets, craigslist is making serious inroads.

Unfortunately, most newspaper Web sites are still stuck in 1997.