Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Whine, whine, whine

C: I read the paper online, as does some of my family who live in NY and TX.
It really upsets me when I am trying to read the obituaries and there is a NETFLIX ad attatched to one of the deceased name.....THAT IS SO DISRESPECTFUL! I can't help but wonder what families must think when they are going to read a family member's obituary and an ad for NETFLIX pops up.
Is there ANYTHING you can do to correct this? - C.F.

A: It's a free site, supported entirely by advertising revenue. Obituaries are the No. 1 item viewed on the site. It may be annoying to see an ad there, but would you rather pay to read that obituary?

9 comments:

Ellipses said...

Geez :-) While you are at it, why don't you tell the kid he will shoot his eye out and then push him down the slide with your boot!

Most people don't know the first thing about advertising... or the internet... or much else, for that matter... So they don't know that they can download Firefox 3, slap the ad block plus extension onto it... and zap ads, frames, and just about anything else from their favorite websites...

Have a beautiful Tuesday, Park...

-ellipses

Anonymous said...

Better a pop-up ad than a pop-up coffin.

Anonymous said...

Maybe there should be a popup ad for coffins...

Anonymous said...

Ellipse You just pointed why so many small business advertisers are down on web ad pricing at times. They worry there is no result for them.
The ads support the business. They are necessary. Park, thanks for telling them the truth. You are not a public service, you are a business.

Anonymous said...

Of course if you are reading the obit of somneone run down by a bus, you don't want to see an ad for Greyhound.

Ellipses said...

Hey, I just had a thought... It has been a long established truth that the obits are the most frequently read section of a PRINTED newspaper... do you have data supporting that online obits are visited more frequently also? I would assume that your printed readership skews toward an older demographic, validating the more often read obituaries... but I would think your online audience is younger, and thus more prone to read sports, police beat, regular news, etc...

-ellipses

Park Burroughs said...

Obituaries rate the highest on the Web site, too. Granted, the local audience for the online edition of the paper may be younger, but there are an awful lot of people who have retired and have moved away from here who keep in touch with their hometown via the Internet.
Dale Lolley's Steelers blog gets a huge amount of hits, as do some sensational murder stories and the police report, but obits, hands down, attract the largest audience.

Dale Lolley said...

Death and the Steelers. There's a joke there somewhere, but it's beyond me.

Ellipses said...

This may be what you are looking for, Dale...


http://msgboard.snopes.com/message/ultimatebb.php?/ubb/get_topic/f/60/t/001468/p/1.html