And once again, we turn to the whole idea of the blurring of journalistic church and state, editorial and advertising. This time, it involves AOL, who seeks to revolutionize the digital landscape.
The Wall Street Journal reported that in December, when AOL becomes a stand-alone company, it will begin to use a series of algorithms to predict the types of stories, videos and photos that will be most popular with consumers and marketers.
If you think about it, AOL is basically ensuring a stream of revenue from advertisers under their new system. Yet, it may not be enough. The most popular story one day might not attract as much dollars from advertisers as the next day’s most popular story. There will be a guaranteed stream of revenue, but it will be one that fluctuates nonetheless.
These days, it’s hard to find revenue online. And so, desperate times call for desperate measures. Although AOL’s measures are largely money-based, it is a justified business model. Catering to what the consumer wants to know while attracting ad dollars is ideal online journalism.
AOL, like any other online news hub, should know what people want. However, AOL could quite possibly succumb to the pressure of advertisers that influence story coverage. Although AOL is using algorithms to figure out what stories to write, you can think of the technology as performing a digital, globalized man on the street interview. If advertisers paid the company to sponsor an article, and it accepted, the company’s independence in newsgathering is undermined.
In addition to selling standard ads to run alongside the story or video on a Web page, AOL says it will offer custom content. For instance, AOL says, if its algorithms show consumers are searching for information about the Zhu Zhu Pets robotic hamster, a retailer could pay AOL to sponsor an article about where to find the hot toy.
Keep in mind the Society of Professional Journalists: Code of Ethics: Deny favored treatment to advertisers and special interests and resist their pressure to influence news coverage.
Let the technology (and the writers, of course) attract the ads, not the other way around.
