Mainstream and alternative newspapers that have watched their valuable classified advertising linage migrate to craigslist, the national online advertising phenomenon, are beginning to fight back,
if tardily. Several news operations, most notably Knight Ridder, have begun to offer free Internet advertising, and the result, according to some, has been encouraging. Instead of cannibalizing
their print classifieds, total revenue has actually increased. Reason: Some ads are more free than others. Big advertisers, eager to be where the eyeballs are going, pay for their presence among
the free online adverts. "Craigslist has created the kind of community-centric counterculture feel that the alternatives used to own," says Peter M. Zollman, founder of Florida-based Classified
Intelligence, a media consultancy. One of the newspaper chains that has been most successful in copying the craigslist formula is New Times Media, the Arizona-based publisher that recently bought
the
Village Voice and five sister papers. "We saw [craigslist] own San Francisco," says Scott Spear, senior VP of New Times. "We said, 'We need to be in that space.'"
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