From www.editorandpublisher.com- CHICAGO Village Voice Media (VVM) is accusing Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster [pictured] of trying to ruin its sex-oriented classified online advertising business as Craigslist faces pressure from several states over its former “erotic services” ads.
The dispute goes back to a little-noticed entry on Buckmaster’s blog published May 22 in which he comments on the erotic services ad controversy. Craigslist eliminated the “erotic services” category in mid-May and created a new paid service in which all ads are to be reviewed before publication. Buckmaster said that in all the coverage of the controversy what’s been notable “has been the absolute disinterest shown by politicians and journalists in hardcore sex-for-money ads featured in journalistic media, no matter how numerous or graphic they may be.”
Buckmaster quoted several graphic ads from backpage.com, a site for adult classifieds created by VVM. “It’s worth noting that these ads’ TITLES ALONE contain more explicit content than you will find in all Craigslist adult service ads combined,” he wrote. “Could the blessing of politicos on voluminous pornographic sex-for-money ads in journalistic media have anything to do with the need for positive coverage and campaign endorsements from said media?”
In an unsigned statement released this weekend, VVM called Buckmaster’s accusations “a deliberate, unnecessary and wholly inaccurate shot across the bow of Village Voice Media and backpage.com.”
VVM suggested it sympathized with Buckmaster and Craigslist in “a tough, and in many ways, frightening situation” with law enforcement threats to the business. “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,” it said.
Buckmaster, VVM said, has “simply attempted to take the competition down with him.”
VVM noted that its chain of alternative weeklies don’t endorse candidates, “and rarely have anything nice to say about them, so to say that politicians aren’t going after Village Voice Media because they need our endorsement isn’t viable.”
Buckmaster’s real complaint, the chain suggested, is that VVM’s free adult classifieds site is a competitive challenge to Craigslist.
“His talk of building community and serving his users rings hollow,” VVM said. “It now appears that, as is so often the case with New Age entrepreneurs, it’s all about the money.”