LA Times experiments with Amazon.com links in stories |
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LA Times experiments with Amazon.com links in stories
Newspapers across the country are desperately trying to figure out how to make money online. And while there's been plenty of chatter about pay walls and micropayments, the jury is still out on what will or won't work.
The Los Angeles Times this week unveiled a potentially lucrative pilot program, which calls for green e-commerce hyperlinks to be added to some of the lifestyle stories and blog posts on the newspaper's Web site. The e-commerce links -- directly related to the content in the story -- will direct readers to products on sites such as Amazon.com.
"These post-publication links to sites such as Amazon and TicketNetwork will serve as both a reader service and a revenue opportunity for the company," the newspaper's reader representative wrote in a blog post. "During the testing phase, the links will be placed by an e-commerce producer based at the Chicago Tribune, where the program has been underway for about six months. At no time will a blue editorial link be replaced with an e-commerce link."
Other news outlets have been experimenting with e-commerce links within stories. But as Lost Remote notes, the affiliate link program could raise tension between editorial and advertising executives in the newsroom.
Interestingly, the LA Times' effort reminded me a bit of Madrona Venture Group's recent bet on Searchandise. Of course, Searchandise is focused on getting more visibility for consumer products within the search results of e-commerce sites themselves.
But I don't see any reason why the technology couldn't also be applied to editorial content, though I have no insight as to whether the company is headed in that direction. Historically, there's been a fire wall separating advertising and editorial at news agencies, but with the media business in turmoil some of those historical divides are certainly changing.
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