The New York Times and the Washington Post, both indisputably among the
ten most respected news organizations in the world, are competing for
online viewership. No surprise there, right?
Both newspapers have even taken out sponsored links on Google's search
engine -- also not too surprising, given that online advertising is
growing faster now than it was during the boom.
What's surreal is that their ads show up for the search term "terri
schiavo."
We have entered a world where not only can news organizations post news
on their web site as it happens...they can also buy ads to drive traffic
to their web site, keyed off of the latest hot news stories.
I don't know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, but it's
certainly a different thing than we have ever seen before.
