Views from Medina Road

The web is free, except for ads. Publishing on the web pays nothing, except for ads. Today I finalized arrangements with Gorilla Nation to begin placing ads on Locus Online. For the moment, just the usual banners at the top of the page, and for the moment, just generic ads, though targeted 'brand' campaign ads should be forthcoming. For the first set, see the June issue pages, posted today, beginning with the Profile page. Also available are tower [vertical] ads, wipeovers, interstitials, and so on, and though apparently they pay far more than the standard banner ad, for now I am declining them to see how the initial banner posts work out--if they really pay enough to be worth the effort to post them, and if the resistence from readers of the site is not too great. I find ads as annoying as the next guy, but at the same time I think, what's good enough for (or tolerable by) the New York Times and The Onion should be good enough for Locus Online.

Meanwhile, I have no less than three special articles/reviews/features lined up for posting on the site, over the next week or so (by David H, Claude L, and Cynthia W), and I hope readers keep in mind that the ads are what's paying for those contributions. Myself, I'm still working for free. Because... um, ...