Most of the ads cited in the fair-housing lawsuit recently filed against the free-classifieds juggernaut "would not strike an ordinary person as discriminatory," says Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster. Nevertheless, newspapers have lived with the "persnickety" Fair Housing Act for many years now, writes the Chicago Reader's Michael Miner after hearing from several AAN classified directors who vigilantly scour their housing ads to ensure compliance. But that doesn't mean alt-weeklies should be thrilled by the suit. "We have two dogs in this fight," says Chicago Reader Executive Editor Mike Lenehan. "(W)e shouldn't be too eager for them to lose this suit, because we're all in the online business too."
The details of the out-of-court settlement are confidential, but it does include the terms on which Sutcliffe Associates' SelectAlternatives program will license Tele-Publishing Inc.'s patents and other intellectual property, the two companies announced yesterday. TPI and SA are both AAN Associate Members and both will continue to provide personal advertising technology to newspapers. "The settlement provides publishers with some choices going forward," says TPI President David Dinnage. "We feel that this is a win for all parties involved."
