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> It's kind of funny though.  A simple list like Steve's list of 
> publications or the MecklerWeb's top pages, can generate several thousand 
> hits from highly qualified customers.  Right now, all of the resources 
> are listed in alphabetical order.  What is the impact of offering the 
> highest slot to the highest bidder.  Each company says what they will 
> pay, and sort the postings (and allocate space) according to the payment 
> offered.  Practically every list in the country could get a bit of 
> reference money.  Even on a small list, advertisers will pay NOT to be 
> listed next to "Crazy Eddies Computers- Right off the truck".

Let me be the first and, with more than 700 links, possibly the 
largest, media list publisher to unconditionally REJECT this idea.

I stop trusting magazines when they start running "reviews" adjacent to 
ads for the same product. I see nothing different here.

I would be more than happy to brag about our hit counts or to 
summarize, in general terms, the extremely well qualified audience we 
attract, based on user registrations. I might even tell how one very 
large and very prestigious news organization has instructed all its 
reporters to use our list as a source.  But I am not about to sell my 
integrity or my list's, and I cannot imagine that the public would 
long tolerate any list that did.

Ads? Yes. I take them. I'll be the first to say how I think they'd be of 
great value to the advertiser. But ads don't buy content. Ever.

Period.
____________________________________________________

ERIC K. MEYER                    meyer@newslink.org 
WWW NewsLink       http://www.newslink.org/newslink/
____________________________________________________

From owner-online-news@marketplace.com Wed May  3 14:27:24 1995
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