The ad to content ratio on Gawker keeps on rising as the site moves from a gossip-focused disruptive media outlet to a’ let’s cash in before this peaks’ flavor of the moment (or was that ex-flavor of the moment?) The problem with this strategy is not bagging filthy lucre–which I admire–but creating user clutter–which I deplore.
Yes, folks, you’re at the tipping point–the ads are getting in the way of the copy. When we did this on AOL’s welcome screen, we trashed our click-through big time, making our readers and our advertisers unhappy. Mind you don’t make the same mistake–Gawker has been a guilty pleasure for so many since the week it launched.
This morning, however, the first page has 4 banner ads running. Because of this, the copy is so crowded that Choire needed to write a little TOC with anchor tag links to jump readers down to the items fitted below the ads. If anyone over there is saying,”But ads are content, and readers like them,” here’s the word from this reader: I do not have the same level of interest in buying Anne Nicole Smith’s sweaty garments on eBay as I do in reading about Robert Downey Junior sightings in Tribeca. No one does. So when you put those ads up there in what used to be the top copy spot, be aware–it’s clutter, and advertising where it doesn’t belong, plain and simple.
The ad to content ratio on Gawker keeps on rising as the site moves from a gossip-focused disruptive media outlet to a’ let’s cash in before this peaks’ flavor of the moment (or was that ex-flavor of the moment?) The problem with this strategy is not bagging filthy lucre–which I admire–but creating user clutter–which I deplore.
Yes, folks, you’re at the tipping point–the ads are getting in the way of the copy. When we did this on AOL’s welcome screen, we trashed our click-through big time, making our readers and our advertisers unhappy. Mind you don’t make the same mistake–Gawker has been a guilty pleasure for so many since the week it launched.
This morning, however, the first page has 4 banner ads running. Because of this, the copy is so crowded that Choire needed to write a little TOC with anchor tag links to jump readers down to the items fitted below the ads. If anyone over there is saying,”But ads are content, and readers like them,” here’s the word from this reader: I do not have the same level of interest in buying Anne Nicole Smith’s sweaty garments on eBay as I do in reading about Robert Downey Junior sightings in Tribeca. No one does. So when you put those ads up there in what used to be the top copy spot, be aware–it’s clutter, and advertising where it doesn’t belong, plain and simple.