Patron Saint of American Media - Craig Newmark
[Gives countless donations to support journalism education, convincing that the media is a democratic epidemic prevention system]
I’m an old-school nerd who firmly believes that the media is always a democratic epidemic prevention system. I’m doing what I can to respect and support 100% freedom of speech for the people who fight to protect the values that America aspires to.

—Craig Newmark

Entrepreneurship is not just about making money
The classified ad website, Craigslist is listed as the world’s largest website. Craig Newmark has been standing to face challenges for 24 years. He tells everyone he meets that: “Entrepreneurship is not just about making money, and technology should be used to promote the public interest.”

For a long time, Newmark has continued to donate money to relevant news websites and colleges of journalism, because he always believes that: “The trusted media is a democratic epidemic prevention system.”

Craig Newmark, aged 66, was born in New Jersey, USA. His father died when he was 13 years old. His mother has always worked hard for his family. Fortunately, he got a scholarship and went to college and got a master’s degree. After graduating, he entered IBM and worked as an engineer for 17 years.

In 1995, he founded Craigslist. In the beginning, it was just a list of activities that he sent to his friends. He did not expect it to be more and more popular. The web version was born in the following year and went online.

Bringing together 50 billion page views
    Craigslist is now available in more than 70 countries around the world. At its peak, there are nearly 50 billion page views per month. The main categories include community, forum, housing, sale, job search, service, etc. It also has dozens of sub-categories, including food, clothing, housing, transportation, education, entertainment of life, and almost everything can be resolved here.

Newmark started charity work very early. In 2001, the Craigslist Foundation was established, paying long-term attention to issues such as military families, voter registration, and women working in technology.

In recent years, Newmark has paid particular attention to news media and education. For those who have entered the second half of life, he said that these things could not be delayed.

Guarding the media and democracy
    While waiting for the demonstration of “Craigslist’s good performance,” he is donating money to the news media and schools because he is convinced of the importance of journalism. He said: “News is a key mission resource for the country.”

He has continued to support journalism education, always insists on 100% freedom of speech, and is convinced that the media is always a democratic epidemic prevention system. He deserves to be praised as a “Patron Saint of the Media,” and stood out among 2,723 recommended candidates from all over the world and earned him the “22nd Fervent Global Love of Lives Award 2019” from Taiwan’s Chou Ta-Kuan Cultural and Educational Foundation.

The Foundation welcomes all walks of life around the world at any time to recommend candidates of life warriors who possess the contexts of endeavors, love, braveness, and achievement.
 
The Fervent Global Love of Lives Medal - Chou Ta-Kuan Cultural and Educational Foundation, Taiwan
Recommended hotline: 886-2-29178770
Fax: 886-2-29178768
Address: 3F, No. 52, Mingde Road, Xindien District, New Taipei City 231, Taiwan
Website: http://www.ta.org.tw
Email: ta88ms17@gmail.com

Treated as a different class by Wall Street for his three insistences
Newmark grew up in New Jersey. The history class in American high school has let him know that in the United States, everyone is eager to have fairness, opportunity, and respect.

The idea behind the beginning of Newmark’s philanthropy business is that we should practice what we preach and then promote these values

Although this sounds simple, from Newmark’s point of view, he believes that everything he does is related to promoting and defense against these values.

Newmark only does one thing, and then concentrates on doing it well. Over the past four years, Craigslist has adhered to the anti-war symbol as a sign, insisting on practicing only text links with no homepage design for advertising images, and asking not to be listed. So it is possible to retain the domain name of “.org.”

Newmark had fallen out of these insistences with partners and was also considered a different class by Wall Street, but he only said: “It’s enough to have some things.”

Newmark later met Jim Buckmaster. Having a similar idea of “to get things done better than making money,” [...] the two hit it off immediately. In 2000, Newmark simply passed the CEO’s seat to Jim Buckmaster, and he laughed himself: “Someone told me that as a manager, I did a bad job.”

However, Newmark is still in the company, working as a customer service staff, personally replying various inquiries and problems that customers ask, focusing on improving customer experience, and fighting against online harassment and frauds.

He lives a low-key and ordinary life. “I also love to buy specials, go shopping in Costco, and looking forward to discounts on what I want to buy.”

Today, the Craigslist is available in more than 70 countries around the world, with nearly 50 billion page views per month during the peak period.

The Craigslist website has never published financial information, and Newmark has never confirmed his shareholding ratio. A market research firm that has tracked Craigslist for more than a decade estimates that the site’s revenue this year is $1 billion, while Forbes magazine estimates that the company’s market capitalization is about $4 billion, and Newmark’s net worth is about $1.6 billion.

Long-term money donor
Newmark started charity work very early. In 2001, the Craigslist Foundation was established, paying long-term attention to issues such as military families, voter registration, and women working in technology.

In recent years, Newmark has paid particular attention to the news media and education, in particular after the US presidential election in 2016. In 2017, he donated US$1 million to the news websites ProPublica and Poynter, and $20 million last June to the School of Journalism at the City University of New York. This February, he donated $5 million to the Poynter Institute, and $10 million to the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Over the past three years, Newmark has donated more than $85 million to news-related groups, and the amount he donated to his private foundation has exceeded $50 million.

For Newmark who has entered the second half of life, he said that these things could not be delayed. “I still have a lot of things to do. I’m 66 years old now and may only have 20 years left to do them.”

Following the circulation of false information on social platforms and news, journalism ethics must also be modernized, which is of utmost importance at the moment, so I’ve been working on such things to help the industry keep up with the changing environment.

Newmark said that while waiting for the demonstration of “Craigslist’s good performance,” he is donating money to the news media and schools because he is convinced of the importance of journalism. He said: “News is a key task resource for this country.”

Supporting military families
Today’s US military members are tomorrow’s veterans.

For the people who are now serving in the US Armed Forces, they are protecting us with their lives. What we can do is to support them and their families.

Military families and their comrades have sacrificed a lot, such as holidays, birthdays, and other special occasions, and separation is just the tip of the iceberg.

Newmark believes that the soldiers are often at risk and can rarely reassure their families. Therefore, he feels that he has a responsibility for the military family and respects them. When they can’t rest, we provide a helping hand and encourage them at the right time.

Ending gender discrimination
Newmark believes that justice and the prosperous world depends on women’s equal access to knowledge and technology, but women still face enormous obstacles in accessing knowledge and technology.

Feminist Approach to Technology (FAT) in New Delhi, India, provides free services to women through technology courses, computer courses, and workshops based on self-esteem, race, class, health education, and cultural issues, allowing women to have employability and advocate their rights.

One of the reasons why Newmark founded Craigconnects is to ensure that women will become the center of the technological revolution and he called on the US government, the United Nations and other agencies to adopt the following recommendations:

1. Eliminate all barriers to the development and use of technology.
2. Increase investment for women working in science and technology education.
3. Ensure to allow women to become technology developers or innovators.
4. Increase the recruitment and training of women in science and technology work.
5. Ensure that technology can meet the needs of women

Following the imperial abdication method
In addition to his open-minded attitude towards wealth, Newmark admits that he is not a good manager.

In an interview, he publicly admitted that he lacks leadership skills. Such a move is indeed rare. Even in 2000, Newmark gave the CEO position to a Technical Director who has been in the company for less than a year.

Newmark handed over the CEO position to Jim Buckmaster.

After the abdication, Newmark does not enjoy retirement as the average big boss would do; but instead, he serves as a customer service staff on the Craigslist website.

Newmark is the founder and Director of the Craigslist website and is also a grassroots employee. With the ability to bow and rise at will, no one else can do it except Newmark!

After Newmark has retired, besides continuing to work on the Craigslist website, he also founded his charity organization

To date, the Craigslist has spread all over to major US cities and 70 overseas countries, and even exceeding 700 cities, including Taiwan.

The Craigslist, the new Internet giant, has more than 5 million page views per month during the peak period, publishing 80 million classified ads and more than 1 million new jobs. The site ranks among the top 20 websites in the United States.

Only a few cities have been recruited for advertising, or a specific category in a few regions, the main reason is that Newmark has different opinions and ideas as compared with ordinary people.

Community first, earn money second
For Newmark, helping others is more important than making money.

The root of all the achievements of the Craigslist website is attributed to the founder Newmark and CEO Jim Buckmaster.

Unlike the general businessmen who like to fight for power and envy the competent and able, they share a common belief and lead the Craigslist website to move forward.

At the Global Media Conference of the Swiss Bank in 2006, CEO Jim Buckmaster was asked by an analyst: How to maximize the benefits of the Craigslist website?

Jim Buckmaster answered: “That’s not our goal.”

Newmark and Jim Buckmaster sneered at the maximization of business profits, and they do not want to sacrifice the company’s business direction for just pursuing money.

Jim Buckmaster said: “We want to maximize social capital, not our financial capital. Through the Craigslist website, people can meet basic needs.”

With a different goal on the entire capitalist society, the Craigslist website has become a unique company.

Newmark waves the flag of public welfare and promotes the Craigslist website.

The Craigslist website is no longer the same, but this top 20 website in the United States have fewer than 50 employees

The Craigslist website does not need to maximize revenue because it has no sales, marketing, human resources, market development, and advertising departments, but just engineers, customer service staff, and accountants.

For the Craigslist website, the community is first, and making money is second.

The Craigslist website retains the “.org” domain after changing to a profit-making company, symbolizing its mission of public service and non-commercial corporate culture, which will continue to be inherited and inspired

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