A Note About Ads
Linked by David Adams on Tue 12th May 2009 16:43 UTC
OSNews, Generic OSes As you may know, the global economic depression has hit the media hard, due in large part to the fact that ad rates are in the toilet. OSNews is in the same boat. Despite the fact that we still have good advertisers, our income from advertising this year will only be a fraction of what it was last year. We probably won't make enough to cover our costs. Other news sites, as they've seen revenue decrease, have responded with more, and more intrusive, advertising. We don' t want to do that. We feel we have a covenant with our readers. If you'll be respectful of our need to run ads, we'll be respectful of your need to read the site without having ads shoved down your throat. Please read on, for more discussion of our ad "covenant," and a plea for help, including a plea to all Adblock users to please unblock OSNews.
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RE[3]: How much do you need?
by Adam S on Tue 12th May 2009 19:51 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: How much do you need?"
Adam S
Member since:
2005-04-01

Page 2 stories are just a teaser with no context, page 1 stories all include a "read more" with additional and editorial insight.

What about that is difficult? I'm being serious. I've heard nothing but good feedback until right now.

Edited 2009-05-12 19:51 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 1

RE[4]: How much do you need?
by Spellcheck on Tue 12th May 2009 20:09 in reply to "RE[3]: How much do you need?"
Spellcheck Member since:
2007-01-20

Difficult? I don't care for the reason of separation.

Except for reviews and critiques (not the articles that end with a third of a page of Thom telling us how his last date went), extended articles don't interest me.

Not that I'd be happy if OSNews became nothing but an aggregator; don't get me wrong. The distinction between "editorialized" and "linked" feels artificial because I think of OSNews' main service as linking to niche stories with the possibility of informed discussion -- especially with staff -- not for writeups on warp drive, wooden macbooks, or bad prognosticating on 2012. I have to mention that I hardly read Ars Technica's prolific reams of barely-to-almost tech-related blurbs at all now, while I used to eat up their densest pieces with joy. So, I think there's a trend here that may be relevent, but I don't know where on the curve everybody falls to compare them.

And I guess that's the crux of it. If I had to make one suggestion for improvement, it would be for the staff to try to transfer some of that writeup energy into comments, even if it feels like an essay unto itself; then combining Page 2 with the Front Page would be more palatable. But maybe I'm just being stubborn about the changes.

Reply Parent Score: 2