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Craig Newmark

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Craig Newmark
Born (1952-12-06) December 6, 1952 (age 72)
Morristown, New Jersey, United States
Alma materCase Western Reserve University
OccupationComputer programmer
Known forFounder of the website Craigslist
SpouseEileen Whelpley (m. 2012)

Craig Alexander Newmark (born December 6, 1952) is an American Internet entrepreneur best known for being the founder of the San Francisco-based international website Craigslist.

Early life

Newmark was born in Morristown, New Jersey, the son of Joyce and Lee Newmark.[1] Growing up, he attended a Jewish religious school.[2] His father, an insurance salesman, died when he was thirteen and his mother struggled financially,[2] moving Craig and his brother Jeff into an apartment in Jacob Ford Village.[1] In 1971, he graduated from Morristown High School[1] and thanks to scholarships,[2] attended college at Case Western Reserve University, where he received a bachelor of science degree in 1975 and a master of science degree in 1977.[3]

Career

Newmark in 2014

After college, Newmark worked at IBM for 17 years as a programmer, living in New Jersey, Boca Raton, Florida and Detroit. In 1993, he moved to San Francisco to work for Charles Schwab, where he was introduced to the Internet—which at that time was still commercial-free.[1] A self-professed nerd [4], he developed Craigslist as a free marketplace where people could come together – without charge – and exchange information. It has been described as an "internet commune."[1]

Newmark remains active at Craigslist in customer service, dealing mostly with spammers and scammers.[5] He also operates Craigconnects,[6] a site that publicizes charitable organizations.[7]

Craigslist was aggressively criticized for providing a venue for personal ads that facilitated prostitution or sex trafficking. Although Craiglist has pointed out that the vast majority of Craigslist users are genuine, a small number of high-profile cases led to intense pressure from states' attorneys general, as well as a user-driven campaign on Twitter[8]. Craigslist closed its adult services section in September of 2010.

Currently, Newmark devotes most of his time to philanthropy, focusing on services for veterans, teachers and fighting online harassment. - Craig Newmark Driven by philanthropy http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Craig-Newmark-driven-by-philanthropy-fact-2290404.php - Craig Newmark Driven by philanthropy. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)</ref>

Personal life

Newmark resides in San Francisco's Cole Valley. He describes himself as a non-practicing, secular Jew,[2] joking that his rabbi was the late singer Leonard Cohen.[2] Newmark married Eileen Whelpley in December 2012.[9]

In May 2017, Forbes estimated that Newmark's net worth is at least $1.3 billion based on his ownership of at least 42% of Craiglist.[10] He called a prior $400 million Forbes estimate of his net worth "bogus." In an interview published in 2017 he said that "By monetizing Craigslist the way I did in 1999, I probably gave away already 90 percent or more of my potential net worth."[11]

Newmark has donated to the presidential campaign of Democratic Senator and former United States Secretary of State John Kerry.[1] He also supported former President Barack Obama.[12] In 2015, Variety (magazine) reported that he contributed to the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton.[13] According to the Federal Election Commission, Newmark has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic Party candidates for U. S. House and Senate since 2003.[14]

In 2016 Newmark joined with the progressive RAD Campaign and Lincoln Park Strategies (founded by Democratic Party stalwart Stefan Hankin) to commission a poll examining user perceptions about social media conflicts during the 2016 election year.[15][16]

In 2006, he donated $10,000 to a non-profit group, NewAssignment.Net, a failed attempt to combine the work of amateurs and professionals to produce investigative stories on the Internet.[17] In 2014 he was one of 60 Democratic Party donors who urged the creation of a system of public election funding.[18] Before the 2016 US Election, Newmark donated to leftist organizations in 15 states that he identified and vetted using the Movement Voter Project[19], which he endorsed in a September 2016 blog post.[20] In 2016, Newmark donated $1 million to the Poynter Institute, which established the Craig Newmark Chair in Journalism Ethics. The same year he donated a million dollars to the Wikimedia Foundation, for which he is an advisory board member.[21] In January of 2017, TechCrunch reported that Newmark donated $500,000 to Wikipedia's attempt at "reducing harassment and vandalism on the site and improve the tools moderators use every day to keep the peace."[22] He is also reported to have donated $1 million in 2017 to the news organization ProPublica.[23]

Newmark is an outspoken proponent of net neutrality.[24]

In 2011, he introduced craigconnects to support non-profits and other organizations "that get things done on a sustainable basis." He declared it "the biggest thing in my life."[25]

Newmark has served as an advisor or board member for the Sunlight Foundation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Rock the Vote, Voto Latino, the Tech Policy Summit, the Center for Public Integrity, the Center for Investigative Reporting, PolitiFact, and Consumers Union.[26]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Morristown Daily Record: "Web guru hails from Morristown" June 26, 2004
  2. ^ a b c d e Something Jewish: "Craig Newmark interview" by Leslie Bunder December 11, 2005
  3. ^ "Case Western Reserve University selects honorary doctorates awardees". Case Western Reserve University. March 25, 2008
  4. ^ - Why Craigslist is such a mess https://www.wired.com/2009/08/ff-craigslist - Why Craigslist is such a mess. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. ^ "The Josh Kornbluth Show: Craig Newmark" (SWF). KQED-TV / Google. October 17, 2005. pp. 27 minute runtime. Retrieved February 8, 2007.
  6. ^ "craigconnects - Connecting the World for the Common Good".
  7. ^ Mitroff, Sarah (July 16, 2012). "Craig Newmark Sits at the Top and Bottom of Craigslist". Wired. Retrieved March 16, 2013.
  8. ^ - Shutting down CL Personals http://blog.craigslist.org/2010/04/29/shutting-down-cl-personals/ - Shutting down CL Personals. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. ^ Drowned in a tsunami of Frappuccinos. SFGate (2012-12-27). Retrieved on 2013-08-27.
  10. ^ Ryan Mac (May 3, 2017). "Craig Newmark Founded Craigslist To Give Back, Now He's A Billionaire". forbes.com. Forbes. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  11. ^ Ken Doctor (February 16, 2017). "Newsonomics: Craig Newmark, journalism's new Six Million Dollar Man". niemanlag.org. Harvard College. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  12. ^ "Craig Newmark, Tech Genius, Is an Obama Man". Reagan, Gillian. October 29, 2008. Retrieved March 16, 2013.
  13. ^ Ted Johnson (July 15, 2015). "Hillary Clinton's Big Hollywood Donors Help Raise $46 Million-Plus". Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  14. ^ "Transaction Query By Individual Contributor". fec.gov. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  15. ^ Brandy Shaul. "Poll: 57% of Americans Feel Trump Supporters Have 'Very Aggressive' Online Behavior" (6 May 2016). adweek.com. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  16. ^ "How big a problem is online harassment in 2016". radcampaign.com. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  17. ^ Usborne, Ryan (November 23, 2005). "Entrepreneur taps mistrust of media for new venture". The Independent. Retrieved February 8, 2006.
  18. ^ "Major Democratic donors press Congress for campaign finance reform". upi.com. February 7, 2014. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  19. ^ "Movement Voter Project". movementvote.org. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  20. ^ "Does Your Neighbor Have the Right to Vote? And Other Questions This Election Cycle". craigconnects. September 12, 2016. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  21. ^ "Poynter Receives $1 Million Gift from Craig Newmark Foundation to Fund Faculty Chair in Journalism Ethics". about.poynter.org. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  22. ^ Devil Coldewey (January 26, 2017). "Craig Newmark puts $500K towards reducing harassment on Wikipedia". Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  23. ^ Benjamin Mullin (March 1, 2017). "Craig Newmark Foundation gives $1 million to ProPublica". poynter.org. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  24. ^ "DIVERSE COALITION ANNOUNCES SUPPORT FOR NET NEUTRALITY LEGISLATION IN MAINE". aclu.org. May 8, 2007. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  25. ^ Robin Wauters (March 8, 2011). "Craigslist Founder Launches craigconnects: "The Biggest Thing In My Life"". techchunch.com. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  26. ^ "Craig Newmark". insidephilanthropy.com. Retrieved May 9, 2017.

Further reading

Wikiquote has quotations related to Craig Newmark.

Media related to Craig Newmark at Wikimedia Commons

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