Thursday, April 29, 2010

LA Times Adds In-Text Ads In Bid For Revenue

In the newest bid for revenue at the Los Angeles Times, the paper said this week that it will begin adding green, affiliate revenue links within its news stories. The paper said it will put in-text links to sites such as Amazon and TicketNetwork as part of the editorial in its Health, Image, Food, Travel, Books, Entertainment and Sports articles and photo galleries. The links also will show up in a number of the paper's blogs, although so far the paper is steering clear of links within its mainline news reporting. The affiliate links follow a similar implementation of affiliate revenue links at the Chicago Tribune, which is owned by LA Times owner Tribune Co. The use of affiliate links in news articles has been a controversial topic, due to the intrusiveness of those ads; companies like Kontera and Vibrant Media have been major providers of in-text ad technology.