Classified Advertising ... One Of Many Disappearing Items In America

WalletPop has created a list titled "Top 25 Things Vanishing From America." Among the Top 25 is Newspaper Classifieds, coming in at #23.

Author Beth Pinsker writes that the movement of advertising from print to the Internet may seem like a trivial change to some, but it has serious repercussions.

"The argument is that if newspaper classifieds are replaced by free online listings at sites like Craigslist.org and Google Base, then newspapers are not far behind them. And if we lose our daily newspapers, or they get severely damaged by cutbacks, then we lose our independent check on our government and we risk living in tyranny," she writes.

Other media in the list of 25 include Yellow Pages (#24) and News Magazines and TV News (#3).