Backpage
former largest, online marketplace for buying and selling sex
Backpage was a classified advertising website founded in 2004 by the alternative newspaper chain New Times Inc./New Times Media (later known as Village Voice Media or VVM) as a rival to Craigslist.
Similar to Craigslist, Backpage let users post ads to categories such as personals, automotive, rentals, jobs and adult services. It soon became the second largest online classified site in the United States.
Craigslist closed its "Adult Services" section in 2010 in response to pressure from state attorneys general and other critics claiming the section facilitated prostitution. Much of Craigslist's share of the adult ad market migrated to other sites, with Backpage being the main beneficiary.
Craigslist's former critics focused on Backpage, which resisted moves to censor the site until January 2017, when Backpage closed their adult section prior to a Congressional hearing.
History
New Times and founding of Backpage
Backpage founder Michael Lacey founded the Phoenix New Times in 1970, saying it was a response to the Vietnam War and the Kent State shootings. Backpage co-founder Jim Larkin joined the New Times in 1971. The New Times' papers were free and relied on advertising. The New Times especially relied on classified advertising to earn money.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4839705. VIAF identifies the subject as 390149196753374792997. The Library of Congress control number is no2017042884. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2004, 2010, 2017 and 1970.
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This entry incorporates text from “Backpage” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.