I couldn't help but share this comment I got on one of my al.com posts today.
I believe this story may have something to do with advertising revenue for the al.com site. ... It's possible that the more hits (including posted comments) this site gets the more attractive their pitch is to potential advertisers (like Blue Cross or Regions). I really believe that the original story and the follow up are an attempt to just generate hits to the site. ... tHEN YOU CAN PROMOTE YOURSELF TO ADVERTISERS AT A HIGHER PRICE. I WOULD LIKE TO SEE A B'HAM NEWS AND AL.COM RESPONSE TO MY ASSERTION.
My response: Yep. You caught us. The veil has been lifted, and you've seen the Wizard behind the curtain. You have our permission to tell all your conspiracy-nut friends that The Birmingham News and al.com are deviously trying to make a profit from the delivery of news.
Thankfully, the commenter is not aware of our future schemes in which we plan to broadcast music through radio waves in order to trick people into hearing advertisements (which we sell for money) sprinkled in between the songs.
There's even talk of searching out a cheap source of paper and printing news on it, only hidden within that news, bam, more advertising.
