| Is Madison Avenue the Here's what Walt, Jackie, and G.P. (best audience submission so far) said... Remember to tell us what you think. The best audience response wins a FREE Spike Webb t-shirt.
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Walter Dodson SWP: Well Walt, you know a thing or two about businesses that depend on advertising as their revenue source. How do you think the trend toward advertising supported Web sites will affect the Net? WD: First of all, I want to state the obvious; the money has to come from somewhere. The mythical belief that the Web can be free is bull-hockey. Companies can give away products and services for just so long before a tangible, monetary benefit has to be recognized. I think advertising is a great source of revenue for the Internet while its in this early formative phase. And by the way, weve already got some subscription-based services on the Web. I think well see a lot more of those in the future. SWP: So you think people will pay to avoid advertising banners and slogans? WD: If publishers provide content that people want, they will be able to charge for it. This has been true for thousands of years. It may not seem that way right now because everyone is providing free access in order to grab as much market share as possible. Other business models will emerge though. For example, charging per access or for length of usage. We dont yet know what kinds of Internet services people want to pay for on a variable basis, but we will find out as soon as an accepted way of billing for it emerges. Methods of billing very small amounts of money to individual audience members are just getting off the ground. SWP: In the meantime will advertising hurt the content we see on-line? WD: Advertisers are an accidental target for this misplaced concern. People naively think advertising revenue is why media content gets dumbed down. Its not. Editors and publishers are just trying to please as many people as they can while theyre meeting their deadlines. They have to avoid alienating significant sections of their audience. In my opinion thats what happens whether the publications business is supported by advertising or not. Maybe the diversity of the Web will allow, or force, publications to maintain a more narrow editorial philosophy. But dont make the mistake of thinking Madison Avenue controls information access, Bill Gates might get mad at you! | ||
GCP says...First of all, yes it is true that the Web is an advertising vehicle, and that every web-site has at least two or more advertisements. It is also true that there is a longer delay between pages because of the advertising banners. Yes, it is obvious that the advertisers have some influence in the web-pages they advertise to. But it is not THAT obvious, it sort of like a hidden influence that they possess. The Internet is just another advertising market of today, more and more advertisers will advertise on the Web as time passes. Today's advertising is beyond our control, I mean first there was radio, then T.V., now it's Internet, it had to happen, let's just hope that it doens't become as uncontrolled as it is in Television. I am really worried about the future of advertising on the Internet, it will grow to an unthinkable amount that we can't imagine. Internet is the future of our lives and there's going to be a lot of advertising in our lives, whether we want it or not. It's inevitable... I think that none of us can predict the future of Internet, no matter if the topic is advertising or content or whatever, it's an amazing thing that still has to go through some serious changes at first so that it becomes as perfect as possible, and I think that the Internet is going to be more than what we can imagine today. The Internet is an absolutely amazing thing, I just hope that we don't ruin it like other things we have. Thanks for letting me say what I think. | ||