E-Media Tidbits

The Portland Oregonian has rejected advertising from a local online-shopping start-up, Bid Brothers. The company says that the newspaper's president informed it that its operation is a threat to the Oregonian's classifieds revenue, and thus the advertising was rejected.

Bid Brothers works in concert with online auction giant eBay. The concept is simple: For any item selling for more than $50, Bid Brothers will sell it on eBay on behalf of the item's owner and take a cut of the selling price for the service. (Bid Brothers only collects its fee if an item sells.)

Bid Brothers co-founder Denis Burger Jr. says in a press release, "We never saw ourselves as competing with the Oregonian. We're just a small, local company offering a service that people want and need."

Prediction: Bid Brothers will get enough free publicity from the rejection that it will do more business as a result than if the Oregonian had accepted its advertising.

(Thanks to Aaron Weiss of KGW.com, who informed me about this.)