First, a housekeeping matter. I’m apologizing for the shock of seeing banner ads here over the weekend pitching Duke Aiona’s “Rise & Shine”. I had blocked his earlier advertising, but these snuck through after a name change in the campaign’s web address. I prefer ads on this site to be a little more consistent with my own views and those of most readers, although the lines are hazy and the methods of filtering ads less than precise.
I notice that Star-Advertiser owner David Black sold three of his weekly newspapers in B.C.
The sale includes the award winning Merritt Herald, Kamloops This Week and Prince George Free Press. The Herald has been covering Merritt and the Nicola Valley since 1908 and was purchased by Black Press in 1993. Kamloops This Week has evolved from a shopper product back in the late 1980s to a twice-a-week publication covering the City of Kamloops. Prince George Free Press was founded in 1994 by Black Press and provides twice-a-week coverage to the residents and businesses of “B.C.’s northern capital.”
This is the The only sale I can remember by the acquisition-minded Black, other than papers included in larger deals that were shed immediately after being purchased.
Just FYI on the PBS offering, “The Shadow Campaign: Big money in this year’s midterm elections.”
And, for you wordsmiths–I just ran into Smashwords, a publisher of ebooks, which provide authors the bulk of any revenues. It looks worth exploring.
Okay, I just ran across this Washington Post investigative piece on the Alaska native corporations. It’s relevant to us because Native Hawaiian entrepreneurs have teamed up with Alaska corporations on numerous projects that have brought in significant federal dollars. It’s an area that clearly needs more reporting.
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How do online ads work? Is there some middleman who gathers ads up and dumps them on websites that happen to include the right keywords, whether or not the blogger agrees or disagrees with a candidate?
Yes. Ads on this site are provided by Google Adsense. Until recently, I could either (a) disapprove categories of ads (political, religious, etc) or disallow specific sites (aiona.com, etc). Google has recently introduced a system for reviewing specific ads before they appear. I am still evaluating this option.
This is one difference between a blog and a newspaper’s Web site (“journalism”). And I’m not saying it’s bad — it’s just a difference.
Ian can pick and choose which categories of advertisements he will accept based on which are —to paraphrase his earlier post — generally acceptable to him and his readers.
He can do this without fear of anyone reasonably calling him out on his lack of objectivity, because he isn’t obligated to have any objectivity, or veneer thereof.
This isn’t a criticism; just an observation. Ian is up front about accepting ads that cater to his and his readers’ presumed political viewpoints. Generally, “real newspapers” don’t do that, but again, at least Ian is honest about it. Many daily newspapers will accept ads from sleazy attorneys and politicians and God knows who all, while shunning advertisements from sex workers, drug dealers, pyramid schemers and others who do pretty much the same thing as politicians and lawyers, but are more honest about it. Yeah, it’s a cliche, but there’s a reason for that.
It’s 0345, I can’t sleep, my mind is wandering and I’ll probably regret this in the morning. So fire away. I’ll probably agree with you.
At any rate, I wish a good morning to you all!