Is Craigslist a Viable Alternative for Content—Or Last Resort?

As an editor I still believe—and will always believe—that content is king. However, I recently ran into a problem when the content I really wanted did not exist … or so I thought. That’s where Craigslist came in.

Like every other publishing company in the country, the planet, and the galaxy, we’ve had to severely cut our freelance budgets. And by “severely” I mean “none.” And it became an issue for the Mississippi Travel Guide, one of my company’s many travel-related pubs, when I was doing a story on a restaurant that doubled as a music venue.

It just so happened that my favorite band, Hoobastank, was playing there, so I traveled three or so hours to see them. In the story, I wrote about the restaurant’s food, atmosphere, and, of course, the concert. Unfortunately, with a photography budget at zero, that meant taking one of our usual photographers with me was not an option. The restaurant owner thought that there might be a photographer there from a local paper. There wasn’t.

As the story was in production, it became obvious that something was missing. While we had supplied food shots and restaurant shots, I felt like a shot or two of the band performing would really add to the piece. So I posted an ad on Craigslist stating that I was looking to see if any Hooba fans had taken photos at the concert.

I received an email from a young lady named Jennifer Jackson who said that she had taken about a dozen shots but that they weren’t very good “because the lighting was terrible.” She sent me a link to her Flickr account where I discovered that Jennifer was far too modest about her abilities. Her shots were so good that my art director and I couldn’t decide which ones to use.

The resulting article turned out better than I had originally envisioned and I saved somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 to $1,200. Will I do this a lot? No. I honestly believe I got lucky that someone as skilled as Jennifer was there. This was only a last resort, one that I honestly hope I don’t have to rely on too much in the future.

Because the economy is coming back, right? I hope so because I would sure like to pay Jennifer—and all of my contributors—what they are truly worth.

RELATED LINKS

By Mark Newman -- Mark A. Newman is the Editor of regional/lifestyle/travel publication Southern Breeze, which covers “the good life on the Gulf Coast.” He also serves as Editorial Director for Compass Marketing, the magazine’s parent company, based in Gulf Shores, Ala. Newman has over 15 years of publishing experience working on both magazines and newspapers.

Post Comment / Discuss This Blog - Info/Rules