CNN.com Slips Ads Into News Slots
from the desperate-times... dept
Taking a page from the shifty search engine playbook, CNN.com, in their desperation for revenue, has started selling text ads that run alongside story headlines. According to this article, some people are getting confused. I went and looked briefly at CNN.com, but couldn’t find any of the ads, so either they’re not always there, or they’re so well integrated that I completely missed them. On the whole, though, I think it does their readers a disservice to try to “slip in” advertisements. It certainly lessens the credibility of what people will expect to find when searching for the latest news at CNN.
Comments on “CNN.com Slips Ads Into News Slots”
No Subject Given
CNN, FOX News and MSNBC are owned by ENTERTAINMENT companies. How can they be viewed as serious unbiased news outlets?
The “mega-ultimate-super-platinum corporations” that own them certainly have final say on what they can and cannot report.
Re: No Subject Given
Gosh! That’s a pretty cynical view…
Re: No Subject Given
You got it wrong. Its “mega-super-hyper-ultimate-platinum”.
I don’t think the small outlets are any better. Stories are released based on someones opinion. Due to the politising of absolutely everything you’re bound to get a slant one way our the other. All other stories are to scare you. If you feel threatened you’ll watch more or read more papers. The problem is that revenue is far more important than integrity.
The ads are there, but marked as ads
The text ads are still there, but on gray background, using different font, and marked as advertisement. At least now it sems that mixing these with the real content is pretty hard.