Candidates Find A New Stump In the Blogosphere

CANDIDATES FIND A NEW STUMP IN THE BLOGOSPHERE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz Amy.Schatz@wsj.com ]
Nearly a year before the first caucuses and primaries take place, the 2008 presidential campaign advertising war is under way online. Candidates of both parties are already buying space on search engines, blogs and other Internet sites popular with political junkies and potential donors. With 18 candidates vying for the most open race for the White House in 80 years and front-runners on both sides announcing plans to forgo public financing, the 2008 election promises to be a huge revenue opportunity, not just for TV broadcasters. "There's a blog primary going on right now," says Henry Copeland, founder of Blogads, a North Carolina-based advertising service which automates the process of placing ads on blogs in exchange for a 30% cut of the revenue. But this year's campaign Web pioneers are already beginning to run into uncharted zones. Some online activists get offended if they think a candidate is paying for ads on Internet sites of the wrong political stripe. And some smaller, locally influential blogs have gotten miffed at being passed over.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117142401468908113.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
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