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Grumpy old geeks: Why do web ads mix with the news?
"On-line publishers don't view this as an ethical dilemma. They view this as a wonderful opportunity."
All the holiday TV shows seem to have some old codger talking about the way things used to be. Well, let me tell you about the good old days.
Remember when layout editors used to jump through hoops to keep stories away from related ads? When the closest thing to collusion between the news and advertising departments was keeping plane crash stories away from airline ads?
Professors in J-schools across the country, themselves old codgers, used to rail about maintaining the separation between news and ads, and impart the idea that delivering the news was a higher moral calling.
For better or worse, thousands of us were unleashed on newspapers everywhere, clutching a copy of the First Amendment in one hand, a pen in the other, and a smirking disdain for advertising somewhere in our hearts.
So it was with dismay that I started seeing things on web sites that seemed to smudge the line between news and ads.
I had been on the road quite a bit when the Microsoft/DOJ show finally rolled into Washington. I'd had problems getting my favorite newspaper and had reverted to the Web to keep up with the goings-on. Something bothered me about the display, and it took a few minutes to figure out what it was. (Those brain synapses slow down when you're an old codger, I guess.) Every time I clicked on a link for a Microsoft story, the story came back with banner ads for Microsoft products.
Now, I use Microsoft products quite a bit, and I realize that newspapers have to make money, but it bothered me to see stories taking a skeptical look at Microsoft's business practices sandwiched between ads touting its products.
It would be hard to use the Web without knowing this sort of linkage was possible, but seeing it in action was a bit unnerving, calling into question some long-held beliefs. A quick trip to other sites around the Web showed that it was a fairly common practice, sometimes with humorous results. Several technology trade magazines had the same glowing, Microsoft-is-wonderful-try-our-beautiful-products ads. Yet others had ads touting UNIX platforms and companies bracketing their Microsoft stories.
In any case, old codger mode was now in full cry, with thoughts of perdition and eternal damnation floating about.
"On-line publishers don't view this as an ethical dilemma," says Eric Meyer, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois J-school. "They view this as a wonderful opportunity."
The weakness of the on-line advertising market and the need for money have combined to prompt some of this, he says.
"A lot of money has been invested in these operations, and publishers want to see some sort of payback. That payback has to come in revenue, and that comes from advertising," he says. Meyer says click-through rates on most ads are between one percent and two percent; that's not encouraging for advertisers, so on-line papers are looking for a leg up
"Newspapers have gotten on a slippery slope here," Meyer says. "The scary thing is that it is not the [ad] agencies asking for this," he said. "It is the editors -- who should be looking out for this -- who are offering it."
Technological ability is also fueling some of this. It is very simple to link ads to content, whether it is a particular section of a news site or stories with certain keywords or the search terms plugged into a search engine. Meyer says that leads to the thought that if it can be done, why not do it?
Bryan Allison, on-line editor at the Las Vegas Sun, says some of this comes from the nature of advertising on the Web.
"A lot of smaller sites just put up every ad they get," Allison says. "Larger sites may charge by the impression. But if someone pays for two million impressions in a section, and that section only gets three million, well, you're going to see that ad a lot."
Now, I certainly understand that newspapers are in business to make money. And I have seen enough advertorial products and special sections targeted to draw in extra advertising dollars to know that the line already has been well blurred in the print world.
Time magazine, like the other newsweeklies, has had special issues targeted to a certain market and paid for by a single advertiser. But it still makes me uncomfortable to see the sort of targeting and data gathering that is done as I wander the Web.
"Many of these ads come from search-term buys," says Melissa Bane, an analyst at the Yankee Group who follows the Internet and on-line services. "That takes the human factor out of it, and this is what you get."
Back in the good old days, we kept this sort of thing in its place.
My moustache has turned gray, I now wear trifocals and my exercise is the morning walk to and from the village for my morning socializing at the diner.
I guess I really am an old codger.
-- Steven E. Brier
From NEWSINC., Dec. 7, 1998, Copyright © 1998, All Rights Reserved.
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