Blogging Journalists: Advertising is not the Enemy
Nov 7th, 2007 by Dan Blank
Robert Niles explains why journalists who have their own blogs are not “selling out” if they put advertising on their site:
“You’re not selling out. In fact, ads on your site are not a “sell out” but a way to buy into the ability to do even more thorough and better-informed journalism for your readers.”
“Advertising revenue buys you the freedom to go out into the field, to talk with sources, to observe, to buy databases — to do the hard, and often expensive, work that informs great news reporting. Just as it always has. The only difference from working at a traditional newspapers is (and, yes, it is a biggie) that you do not have a separate sales force to earn that advertising money to cover your salary and reporting expenses.”
I think almost everyone is comfortable with a few Google ads here and there, as long as it’s not excessive, or if it’s only a site ripping off content for the sole sake of harvesting clicks.
Paid blog posts on the other hand I find disgusting. i.e. companies recruit bloggers to write reviews on their products. In those cases the lines truly are muddied, making it very difficult to find non-biased and non-PAID bloggers.
james…