Forbes has dropped its controversial embedded ad links, discussed on Loose Wire a few months back. DMNews reports that Forbes has quietly removed the links “after editors objected to the appearance of advertising influencing editorial decisions”. Forbes says that the perception of a problem was more in its journalists’ minds than in those of the … Read more
Just how intrusive are the contextual ads in Gmail? Not a new question, I know, but there are some stories appearing that seem to belie Google’s claims that emails would not be mined for more sensitive subjects. Take the following examples I received from one friend: Emailing a friend about a chicken dish she’d just … Read more
Where is the line between editorial independence and the advertisers who make a media publication viable? Forbes, DMNews reports (thanks Online Journalism.com), has started included ’embedded ads’ in its news stories via Vibrant Media, a specialist in contextual advertising. These ads are links matching related words — car, house, music, that sort of thing. With nearly … Read more
WhenU, now known as Claria, has won what it calls an “important decision for the entire Internet industry” in its motion to enjoin the Utah Spyware Control Act, passed in March. WhenU had argued the Act “affects legitimate Internet advertising companies and therefore violates the First Amendment and dormant Commerce Clause of the United States … Read more
Forget Jayson Blair, Jack Kelley and Stephen Glass. What happens when you can’t even trust the words of a food critic? Bart Ripp, restaurant critic of the Tacoma News Tribune, has quit ”after 32 years in the newspaper business, 15 of them here as a features writer, historian, postcard savant and restaurant critic.” Now, according to … Read more