E-Media Tidbits

VG.net Norwegian news site VG.net is experimenting with "wallpaper" ads as a backdrop to news.

In Norway, several news sites are  experimenting with new formats for advertising. Today's online business model is not strong enough, so they want to try new strategies. How far are they willing to go?

Take a look at VG Nett from last Thursday (left). The blue ad for pills that surrounds the editorial text works as a kind of wallpaper ad, sure to get the attention that the company behind the pill would pay a lot for. My guess is that most journalists would accept this ad.

But what happens when you "crank it up to 11?"

Naeringsliv24 Norwegian news site N24: What's the main "product" -- the news, or the ad?

News site N24 (Naeringsliv24) features a wallpaper ad for Visma, a software company -- but also shrinks the front page so much that the ad appears to be the main product (picture).

We could look at this from many angles, but I'll come out and say the following from my journalistic perspective: I don't like what n24.no does. It signals that ads are more important than journalism. And that's the wrong signal -- to me. And, I suppose, to a lot of journalists at N24 also. But they probably don't get to decide.

If this kind of ad turns out to be an economic success, then we are all welcome to try and push the toothpaste back into the tube.