Absolutely. I was working at a newspaper when it got started. This is a near-verbatim conversation I had with our publisher:

“Hey John, I was wondering about our classifieds revenue. How much of our money comes in from that vs. display ads?" [those are the designed ads with photos and graphics etc.]

“Almost exactly half. Like 49-51% depending on the month. Why?”

“Well I was talking to some guys from the SF Weekly, apparently there’s this guy out there named Craig…”

I explained that there was nothing stopping "Craig" from cloning his site in every market, and developed a clone that we could license to other papers around the country before Craigslist could get traction. Unfortunately, a new publisher came in, and when he got word of my project, axed the entire operation — “This would destroy our classified ads revenue!”

Years later, Steve Jobs said that he was happy to “cannibalize” iPod sales with the new iPhone. Really wish I had the wits to explain that as well back then.