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The 2000s in America

Newmark, Craig

by Kerry Skemp

Identification: American entrepreneur

Born: December 6, 1952; Morristown, New Jersey

Craig Newmark founded the innovative free online classified site Craigslist, which by the 2000s allowed users throughout the United States and a number of other countries to find housing, browse job openings, sell household items, and make connections in their communities. He was an active advocate for many causes throughout the decade, including open source software, fact-checking and investigative journalism, and government transparency.

Craig Newmark is an entrepreneur best known for founding Craigslist, an online community that features events, forums, and classified postings. After moving to San Francisco, California, Newmark created an e-mail list to share news about local events in San Francisco with friends. As the number of recipients increased and many list members began to request information beyond event listings, such as job openings, Newmark expanded the list and transitioned it into a website, which he named Craigslist. The site gained a strong user base by the end of 1997. Its popularity was due in part to Newmark’s stance on advertising and pricing; he chose not to allow banners advertisements or pop-up ads on the site, and he did not charge users to post most types of listings. In 1999, Newmark left his job in information technology and began working on the site full time.

Although his net worth was estimated in the hundreds of millions, Newmark preferred to characterize Craigslist as a “community service” rather than a business and credited chief executive officer Jim Buckmaster with much of the site’s success. Newmark continued to work on Craigslist occasionally throughout the 2000s, though his involvement declined as Buckmaster took over. By the end of the decade, he worked primarily in customer service rather than in an executive capacity.

Newmark also became known for his philanthropic endeavors during the decade. As Craigslist grew, he devoted more time and money to various causes, most prominently citizen journalism, free speech, net neutrality, and open-source software. Some of the many organizations that Newmark supported throughout the 2000s include DonorsChoose, FactCheckED, and the Wikimedia Foundation.

Craig Newmark

AUGHTS_NewmarkCraig.jpg

(Courtesy J. D. Lasica)

Impact

Newmark’s development of Craigslist changed the way people found local events, items, and housing in the 2000s, and the site remained one of the most popular websites in the United States into the following decade. As a philanthropist, Newmark played a significant role in supporting a number of organizations, largely through outreach initiatives.

Further Reading

1 

Masum, Hassan, and Mark Tovey. The Reputation Society: How Online Opinions Are Reshaping the Offline World. Cambridge: MITP, 2012. Print.

2 

Vinjamuri, David. Accidental Branding: How Ordinary People Build Extraordinary Brands. Hoboken: Wiley, 2008. Print.

3 

Weiss, Philip. “A Guy Named Craig.” New York 16 Jan. 2006: 8. Print.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Skemp, Kerry. "Newmark, Craig." The 2000s in America, edited by Craig Belanger, Salem Press, 2013. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=2000_0266.
APA 7th
Skemp, K. (2013). Newmark, Craig. In C. Belanger (Ed.), The 2000s in America. Salem Press.
CMOS 17th
Skemp, Kerry. "Newmark, Craig." Edited by Craig Belanger. The 2000s in America. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2013. Accessed September 18, 2025. online.salempress.com.