Village Voice to Craigslist: “Calm down, back off”
This is quite a title for a press release:
"Village Voice Media to Craigslist CEO Buckmaster: Calm Down, Back Off; There is Nothing Wrong With a Little Competition"
Last week in his company's blog, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster contended that if state attorneys general are going to single out anyone for adult-oriented classifieds, they should go after other publishers with equal measure. Buckmaster pointed to explicit ads in alternative weekly newspapers published by Phoenix-based Village Voice Media, with links to the ads on VVM's online classifieds property, Backpage.
A press release issued today called Buckmaster's salvo "deliberate, unnecessary and wholly inaccurate," adding that "we can't sit on our hands and be silent."
"Buckmaster and Craigslist are in a tough, and in many ways, frightening situation," the release said. "They have a number of moralistic state attorneys general threatening them over their adult ads, and a raft of bad press following the terrible tragedy in Boston that the company is admittedly in no way responsible for. But, the manner in which Buckmaster is responding to this pressure -- by disingenuously lashing out at competitors and caving to political pressure -- is inexcusable, and displays a remarkable lack of sound judgment. ...
"Buckmaster is only complaining because a competitor is challenging his economic advantage in the free classified arena -- which he built in part on adult ads -- and has made him a very wealthy man. His talk of building community and serving his users rings hollow. It now appears that, as is so often the case with New Age entrepreneurs, it's all about the money."
The release.
