Craigslist, known for its free public Internet bulletin boards and ad listings, has begun charging $25 to post employment ads on its New York and Los Angeles sites, to cover the costs of a planned
expansion. The New York area accounts for nearly 30,000 of the more than 100,000 total new job listings the Web site operator gets each month. The Los Angeles area submits another 25,000 listings per
month. The move to charge for job ads in New York and Los Angeles represents the company's first new revenue stream since it began charging $25 for job postings on its San Francisco-area site six
years ago. The San Francisco ads now go for $75. By next year, the closely held company could begin to charge for job postings in Boston--its next largest employment market--and for New York apartment
listings, according to Jim Buckmaster, the company's chief executive. Craigslist--which has a cult following of users who tap its regional sites for everything from jobs to dates--said it plans to add
more cities and to offer new services, such as a Spanish foreign-language site, within the next year.
