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Grassroots journalists are dismantling Big Media's monopoly on the news, transforming it from a lecture to a conversation. In We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People, nationally known business and technology columnist Dan Gillmor tells the story of this emerging phenomenon, and sheds light on this deep shift in how we make and consume the news.

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Finding Common Ground in Translation | Main | Book Published in Taiwan

February 01, 2005

Serious Ad Money for Blog

  • Ad Age (reg req): Sony Pays $25,000 a Month for Gawker Blog. Sony Consumer Electronics e-Solutions Group is the exclusive sponsor for the launch of LifeHacker, a blog that goes live today about the software of personal gadgetry by Gawker Media, according to the online company. The deal, which also includes placements on Gizmodo, Gawker's earlier gadget title, will cost Sony in the range of $25,000 a month, according to a source close to the deal. The sponsorship runs for about three months.
    • Well, there go the pay scales at Nick Denton's company...

    I'm not nuts about the sole-sponsor ad model, but it's obviously going to be a wave of the future in personal journalism.

    (Via Alan Mutter)

    Posted by Dan at February 1, 2005 04:30 AM

    Comments

    Dan,

    I, too, have concerns about the sole-sponsor ad model -- mostly about the perception of how much it influences the editorial content of the blog.

    Are you aware, can you point me to, plausible or extant ad models?

    Thanks.

    Posted by: Critt Jarvis spacer at May 24, 2005 04:59 PM

    From my point of view $25K/month is not so much for this kind of blog and traffic associated. Selling yourself to one sponsor can't be the best monetarizing possibility - it's like killing your business and going back to salaried job.

    Posted by: Jenifer Hershey spacer at April 18, 2006 09:14 PM

    Yes I think you are correct any sort of sponsorship always tends to sway the opinions of the pondered business/individual.


    Posted by: Nurvex Website Design spacer at April 23, 2006 08:15 PM

    Although you wouldn't necessarily have a single company sponsor a more traditional magazine or newspaper, most do carry adverts from a variety of vendors. If you are concerned about editorial independence with regards a sponsored blog, then you should be equally concerned about the editorial independence of the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, New York Times or CNN.

    My blog carries adverts, as does the rest of my magazine's website (www.cbronline.com). The point is that the advertising and editorial integrity question is not new, it's only new in the sense of its relation to blogs.

    The only issue I see is that readers of the Gawker blog may not be aware that Sony is a big sponsor. With adverts on my (and others') blogs, the reader at least knows which vendors are backing the publication. The reader can then make up their own mind whether any bias is creeping in. If the reader doesn't know the sponsor, they can't make that judgement. So it comes down to transparency, in my view.

    Posted by: Jason Stamper spacer at May 3, 2006 02:29 AM

    Yes thats true like someone mentioned above getting a sponshorship like that is just the same as working for someone else. There are loads of other ways one can monetize a site. The bias will come without any second thought

    Posted by: Web_directory spacer at August 9, 2006 04:25 AM

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