Which ad are you talking about? I don't see any ad at all. I only see YOUR writing because that's all that matters!

JLee, got any suggestions on that new blog site? I haven't exactly been as active as I used to be here. I don't have a problem with OS getting a "few cents" from my writing, but I want my family and friends who check my blog (and aren't regular OS members) to know that this is not my doing and I'm not the one making the few cents from the click.

I don't have a problem with ads on the cover... The company has to make money, right? Of course, being someone who actually works for a newspaper, I assure you that web advertising is not a sustainable or even reasonable revenue stream at this point.
These ads in the middle of my blog aren't some new ingenious form of advertising. They're old hat. And not that profitable.

As I have commented on this issue elsewhere, my serious blogs are over on blogger.com, e,g. see

bgladd.blogspot.com

santafeandthefatcityhorns.blogspot.com

Blogger.com is owned by Google, which also owns AdSense. They pitch AdSense to us there as well, but do not cram ads down our throats right amid our posts anyway should we decline. Last time I checked, Google was making mega-orders of magnitude more money than Salon.

What I object to mainly here is Lauerman's transparently disingenuous pitch that he's magnanimously offering OS bloggers this great value proposition. This is all about making money for Salon.com, period. They now get a "page impression" count addition every time someone views any of our posts, whether we've signed up for AdSense or not. The likelihood that any OS blogger will ever see any appreciable revenue from this scheme is nil.

I will live with the distracting ad they're now forcing into my posts, but I've added a disclaimer to my bio panel and will include another at the bottom of everything I post going forward.

BTW- Lauerman increasingly has no tolerance for dissent on this issue; he's been deleting my skeptical comments of late. Which is fine, 'cause I'm not going back to his post any more, it simply bumps his page impression count.

Thanks for the helpful comments JLee, BobbyG and Larry.

Bobby, I like the disclaimer you have in your bio. I'm going to copy it -- if you don't mind.

I just joined, and just read your JUNE post, but just so you know, the ads pay for this blog to exist. It may be an annoyance, but where else can you voice anything you want in print? Our congressmen and senators surely don't listen, even when we write to them. Here you can be heard.