Online Advertising

When I first heard that we needed to add a video or photo to our blog assignment, I went straight to the news Web site where I knew there are always great videos: CNN.

As much as I love print journalism, some stories beg to be shown, not just told. As much as journalists aim to show the news to the reader through their vast knowledge of the English language, there is nothing quite like seeing an event take place with your own eyes. One such story that begged to be shown I first read about in the AJC. The story was on the Obamas' visit to meet with the Queen of England. As much as I enjoyed reading, I very much wanted to see President Obama giving the Queen an iPod, as the story talks about.

So I went onto CNN's Web site to look for videos of the trip and immediately saw a link to the much-televised video of the Queen putting her arm around First Lady Michelle Obama. I'm not really sure why the fact that they touched got so much press, but what struck me about the video wasn't that they were touching, it was the fact that a video advertisement preceded the news video. 

Now, before we can watch the Queen and the First Lady share an intimate moment, we have to hear from IBM about how we can build a better planet. 

Is video advertising taking over news sites like it has online television? Will we be forced to watch these ads because we don't have DVRs on our computers? What is the future of online advertising for news media?

I can tell you that as far as advertising goes, I would much rather see ads in a paper that I can skim over than be forced to watch ads online.