Search Engine Optimization Journal adds something new to the discussion about online newspapers.
The Online News Delivery model can introduce a whole new schemes of advertising. You could very well see the news brought to you by pay per action type ads, including audio and video as well as pay per click, along with display advertising. You’ll likely see a big rise in pay per thousand-view ads. But something else you might see is a sponsored article type advertising where a particular advertiser pays to sponsor an article or a series of articles.
The sponsored story is an interesting idea. Would it be flat fee or pay per click? I think it is quite possible it could work on either model, but I can see it moving toward a pay per click basis, which would give online newspapers and edge and provide advertisers will value that allows them to control their budgets. As time moves beyond the timeliness of the news story those links will get fewer and fewer clicks. At the same time, they will be relevant links.
Pay per click has been in a state of flux for a couple of years now so I’m not entirely married to the idea of the pay per click sponsored news story. But I do think the idea has a little merit. The problem will still be click fraud. How will newspapers prevent fraud, and will the search engines have a solution for it? It is likely that, if online newspapers control the advertising, click fraud solutions will have to come from them as well. But will it happen?
