The problem with traditional biz media sites

Jaime Pham, a content marketing and social media consultant, writes on LinkedIn about her issues with traditional business news websites.

Pham writes, “This morning, I went to a business publisher’s website to read an article about Snapchat. The headline appeared in my LinkedIn news feed, having been placed there because a colleague reacted to it. Publisher: winning.

“The page loaded. A leaderboard ad at the top, twice the size of a normal 728×90 ad, appeared and immediately expanded. I closed the expansion and the ad remained large, taking up nearly half the page. I scrolled down to look at the content I originally came there for, and the ad remained at the top even as I scrolled, obstructing my view of the article. Publisher: losing.

“Sigh.

“Why bother to retain editorial staff when the experience on your website is so poor that you are driving your readers away before they even have a chance to read the article? Have you no faith in the quality and consistency of your content? No vision for how your business model should change now that banner ads are near extinction? I would rather have seen some irrelevant links from a native ad distributor at the top, over this terribly disruptive banner ad experience.”

Read more here.