Craigslist's Forced Censorship of Erotic Ads Saves Journalism Industry

Craigslist's new policy barring the publication of erotic ads has not only saved lives and stopped prostitution, it's also saving the dying newspaper industry.

After the site announced last month under pressure that it would no longer publish erotic ads, sales of erotic ads in local alternative weekly newspapers have soared, according to the Washington City Paper.

The paper reports its own sales of adult ads was up 38 percent in the first week of May as criticism against Craigslist was heating up, compared to the same time last year. Minneapolis' City Pages says its adult ad sales have almost doubled. And SF Weekly in San Francisco had 160 adult ads the week before Craigslist's policy went into affect but clocked in with 910 ads last week.

Craigslist withdrew erotic ads after a 22-year-old Boston medical student allegedly murdered a woman who advertised erotic services on the web site. A week earlier, a New York City radio reporter was found murdered after placing an ad on Craigslist for rough sex. The murders led South Carolina's attorney general to threaten Craigslist with a criminal investigation if it didn't pull the ads. The prosecutor accused Craigslist of facilitating prostitution. Connecticut’s attorney general called Craigslist “a blatant Internet brothel.” Attorney generals in several states met with Craigslist to hash out a compromise that involved the site creating a new adult category for legal services that employees will monitor.

That move apparently did little to curb the activity lawmakers were trying to halt; it simply sent erotic services ad buyers flocking from new media to old media, despite the fact that ads with the latter cost more than on Craigslist.

An adult-services ad in the Washington City Paper starts at $150 per week. The Chicago Reader charges $50 for online-only ads; $100 for online and print. Craigslist, by contrast, charged only $5 until it was forced to implement its manual monitoring of ads. It now charges $10 for ads placed in its adult category.

As the Washington City Paper points out, the criteria for vetting ad content varies drastically between the weekly newspapers and the now-revamped Craigslist, highlighting the randomness of the lawmaker's attacks against the web site, while leaving print papers alone.

Now, when you place an adult-services ad on Craigslist, you have to aver that you are offering no “content that is unlawful, pornographic, or which advertises illegal services”; no ads “suggesting or implying an exchange of sexual favors for money”; no “pornographic images, or images suggestive of an offer of sexual favors." . . .

Craigslist’s “competition” has standards, too—they’re just not as fresh and unequivocal as the ass-covering Craigslist versions. In a City Paper ad, says McAndrews, you can’t post a photo of genitalia or penetration. “Nipples are kind of on a fence,” she says. Heather Hansen of the Seattle Stranger says advertisers on its Naughty Northwest site can’t “show their privates,” adding that photos can be “a little bit risqué and sexy but nothing over the top.”

“Kay,” who advertises herself as a “Busty Blonde/ Toys” in City Paper, says Craigslist’s new standards mean she can only submit “one of my pictures that doesn’t net me a lot of business.” Another woman who advertises in both City Paper and Craigslist and spoke on the condition that I didn’t print her name says Craigslist’s “standard is no good because you cannot really describe who you are.”

Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster has been railing against the double standard that forced it to censor ads that the alt-weeklies continue to proudly publish. In a blog post he lists a number of titles taken from ads placed with the alt-weeklies recently, which are full of sex-for-sale euphemisms: "Let me put you to bed backdoor available $80;" "Three holes anything goes $90 - Greek included." One ad includes photos of a woman performing oral sex on a man.

"It’s worth noting that these ads’ TITLES ALONE contain more explicit content than you will find in all craigslist adult service ads combined," Buckmaster writes on his blog.

The alt weeklies have little sympathy for Craigslist, however, since newspapers have been complaining for years that the online classified site has been killing their revenue.

Photo: David Hilowitz/Flickr

See also:

• Sued by Craigslist, South Carolina's Top Cop Declares Victory and Goes Home