Notice anything missing from our site?
Pittsburgh City Paper is happy to announce that we’ve removed ads from within the content of our stories, with the goal of providing a better experience for readers, creating more valuable opportunities for advertisers, and avoiding any conflicts of interest between the two departments.
While ads can still be purchased to appear next to stories or as banners across the top of City Paper’s website, ads will no longer appear within any stories written by our editorial department.
CP Ad Director Rachel Winner says the revenue from Google ads, which used to run repeatedly throughout stories, is not worth it if they take away from the company’s strong editorial product.
“Advertisers can still reach our wide audience by placing ads elsewhere on our site,” according to Winner, “and we’re hoping that audience will be more appreciative knowing that our company has a clear editorial and advertising separation.”
Clients interested in advertising their services can also look forward to new opportunities to be unveiled in the near future, including the ability to place more targeted banner ads within sections, and a new "buy local" feature coming soon.
Editor in Chief Lisa Cunningham says she’s grateful for Winner continuing to work with their editorial team on making City Paper's products the best they can be for their audience.
“In addition to making our site easier to read, without the distraction from ads within our stories, it also eliminates a frustration we’ve had with some ads appearing in our stories that are the antithesis to our editorial mission,” says Cunningham.
She gives the example of a recent offensive right-wing Google ad that was automatically published within a story, even though City Paper had set up a filter to eliminate such political ads from appearing.
The change has been made effective immediately, and includes all current and previously published stories.
