Some bloggers can really get worked up over their advertisers. Oy! I'd be more inclined to say, "Thank you for advertising with us. We hope you'll consider us again in the future." But then, I guess that's a matter of how one approaches business.

And let's make no mistake: We are talking about business. When blogs start making some serious money -- and as I said before, mediagirl.org doesn't pull in a lot, but I suppose it's serious enough -- the bloggers need to make some decisions, the kinds of decisions that broadsides had to make hundreds of years ago.

What influence should advertising have on a blog?



My answer is "none." And what's more, it should not make a difference whether an advertiser chooses or passes on advertising with one's blog. Advertisers are in the advertising business. Bloggers are not. (If they are, then they're already in trouble.)

Not quite getting it is Kos, who, it seems to me, puts the burden on the advertiser:

Still, here's the bottom line -- campaigns should advertise on blogs to reach readers, not to "endorse" the publication. We're bloggers. We'll say things that are "controversial". If campaigns don't think they can weather such storms, then by all means they should NOT advertise on blogs.

Because every time a campaign freaks out at a blogger and pulls their ads, we're going to raise a stink about it and inevitably make that campaign look bad. So they should think long and hard before putting money into a Blogad campaign.

The last thing any of us need are bloggers afraid to be themselves lest they lose out on ad money. And that's what this sort of shit creates. It's a chilling effect.

The real issue, it seems to me, is that if an ad is making you feel in any way pressured to write or not write about something, or spin it a certain way, then you already have a problem.

And "rais[ing] a stink about it" isn't going to do anything except draw a clear connection between the blog's advertising and the blog's content, plus risk making the blogger seem like a spoiled brat who wants his cake and to eat it, too, which won't exactly appeal to readers or advertisers, imho.

And it creates a perception that it can go the other way -- that "pay for play" can buy editorial content.

Advertisers pull ads from publications and broadcasts all the time, for all sorts of reasons, and I really don't think the blogger is well served by fretting publicly about it. That's life in the media big leagues.

[Update: kid oakland has a good diary on DailyKos about the issue. I can't speak to the comments in that thread.]

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media girl also blogs at other places.