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Bigger ads ands distracting text
Two unrelated notes today, one was actually meant for yesterday but between grading assignments for the online journalism class I teach, and being interviewed by an reporter for an Israeli newspaper, I never got a chance to post it.
First yesterday’s planned piece…
In October 1994, HotWired brought commercialism to the Web with be introducing the infamous banner ad. Seven years later, publications have realized that those little rectangles cannot support a multi-million operation. So, Salon.com has switched to the, until now, rare interstitials — every time you click to read a story, you must sit through a full page ad for about five seconds. (MSNBC is also using interstitials)
In refreshing example of media honesty, Salon.com explained why it had to do this.
The move could do one of two things:
- drive people away (doubtful)
- encourage people to subscribe (likely)
Either way:
- Salon.com will likely generate more revenue (through the ads or the subscriptions),
- and more publications will follow Salon’s path.
Maybe this is the kind of shift needed to ween people off of free content.
And now today’s bit…
Wired News has an interesting article about blind people finding online news sites hard to get information from because there are so many distracting text elements. Many have gone back to the Usenet and chat rooms of yesteryear to get updates.
It's an important thing to consider, especially as many sites are looking to move into wireless publishing.