The thinking behind the Lawrence Marketplace directory

http://jeffcroft.com/blog/2007/apr/03/ljworld-marketplace/

"I’ve found myself using this thing constantly as we’ve been developing it. It’s really, really useful. But at the same time, it’s a tremendous advertising opportunity for local businesses and a nice money-making venture for us, as well. I think it really goes to show that it is possible to make both advertisers and users happy. These two groups don’t have to be at odds with one another. Give users honest and tasteful advertisements for products and services they may actually be interested in, and provide them with a lot of useful content along the way, and I suspect you won’t hear many complaints from either party."

Journalism's fatal disconnect with business

Good article on the potential of getting editorial/advertising/technical people together to create something of genuine use to users and advertisers.

http://www.lostremote.com/2009/02/26/journalisms-fatal-disconnect-with-business/

"By splitting journalism and business into two buckets separated by a longstanding cultural divide, the two groups fail to collaborate on ideas that tap the strengths of both. And neither have a track record of understanding how technology enables community, the greatest opportunity of all. In fact, nearly three-quarters of local online news consumers say newspapers have failed in providing a sense of community and “connective tissue” in their local cities and neighborhoods (Forrester Research 2009). After all, most journalists want to control the conversation. So do the sales folks. So you need a third element: creative technology folks, empowered with resources, who can infuse community in content and revenue generation, providing value to both users and businesses."