Mark Whittaker
NY Times columnist: Escort advertising a free speech issue?
New York Times writer David Carr, who covers pop culture and writes the Media Equation column for The New York Times, presents a defense of Village Voice Media, which is under siege by attorneys general and clergy for the online publication of escort advertising on Backpage.com.
Carr’s column reminds readers that “a free press is not free,” and that free speech is sometimes unsavory. Continue reading
Prostitution-ad revenue down slightly in September
Monthly revenue from online prostitution advertising in the U.S. dipped 2.9 percent in September to $2.95 million compared to $3 million the previous month, based on analysis of five leading websites that publish sex-for-sale listings.
At the same time, the number of listings tracked on those sites plus two others was 224,000, roughly flat compared with August listings. The number of unique visitors to 23 websites that promote prostitution listings increased 1.9 percent to 5.4 million in September, according to Compete.com.
Backpage sees 50 percent annual gain in online escort-ad revenue
Backpage.com generated $2.1 million in revenue from online prostitution advertising in August, a 50 percent increase from the $1.4 million it generated in the same month in 2010, according to AIM Group estimates. Continue reading
Indeed.com adds resume search for employers
By Mark A. Whittaker
Indeed.com, the world’s busiest jobs site, today launched “Indeed Resume,” which allows any employer to search the site’s database of more than 1 million resumes for free.
Before today, Indeed sold pay-per-click job postings to employers but had no mechanism that allowed employers to search Indeed’s entire database of resumes.
“We wanted to do for resume search what we’ve done for job search,” Chris Hyams, vice president of product for Indeed, said during a preview webinar Wednesday. That meant creating a resume search engine that was simple, comprehensive and enables employers to find relevant results, he said. Continue reading
Online prostitution advertising stunted by Craigslist’s departure
By Mark A. Whittaker
ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. (Sept. 6, 2011) – In the year since Craigslist eliminated ads for prostitution from its sites in the U.S., the amount spent on online prostitution advertising in the U.S. has been reduced by more than 50 percent, research by the AIM Group shows.
Total online revenue generated by prostitution advertising tallied by the AIM Group from September 2010 through this August was estimated at $33.8 million. Before Craigslist eliminated its ads for adult services, the AIM Group had estimated that prostitution ads would generate $71 million in annual revenue for Craigslist and six other sites.
Under strong pressure from state attorneys general and members of Congress, Craigslist dropped its “adult services” ads – primarily ads for escort services and body rubs – on Sept. 3, 2010. The AIM Group had projected Craigslist’s adult services in 2010 at $44.6 million. When Craigslist eliminated the category, replacing it briefly with a black bar marked “censored,” it dropped approximately 70,000 advertisements for a variety of services.
Almost immediately, prostitutes and their pimps began shifting their ads to other sites, none of them as well known as Craigslist — the leading classified advertising site in the world. Backpage.com, the free-classified site owned by Village Voice Media, took over the No. 1 spot as a site for advertising of escorts and back rubs. This week, 47 attorneys general from throughout the United States demanded that Backpage eliminate adult-services ads, calling the site “a hub [… for] human trafficking, especially the trafficking of minors.” Continue reading
Backpage’s escort-ad revenue drops 1.4 percent in June
By Mark A. Whittaker
ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. (Aug. 5, 2011) – Revenue from escort and body-rub advertising at Backpage.com, the classified-advertising site owned by Village Voice Media, declined 1.4 percent in June to $1.95 million, the AIM Group estimated.
Despite the slight decline at Backpage, that site and others that advertise prostitution services collectively continued to gain traffic and revenue since online classifieds giant Craigslist stopped selling adult-services advertising in September 2010.
The fastest-growing escort-advertising site is AdultSearch.com, which in June generated an estimated $110,000, up 16.9 percent compared with May and five times what it generated in September 2010. Traffic to AdultSearch.com has increased at the same rate. In June, the site had nearly 343,000 unique visitors, up 20 percent from the previous month, according to Compete.com. Continue reading
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