Steve Rubel reports today on a new, experimental Sponsored Blogroll service announced by the Washington Post today:

Basically, the way this works is that the WaPo is building a network of bloggers who want to participate in the program. Like BlogAds, advertisers can browse the network and find blogs to advertise on within their verticals. The bloggers and the Post split the ad dollars. The Post has put out a call for blogs that focus on technology, business, health, automotive and travel topics. Nevertheless, they are interested in all submissions.

However, there’s more. Where it really gets interesting is that the bloggers who opt into the program don’t just earn dollars but also a rotating link to their site in a special Sponsored Blogroll box that sits right on the Washington Post home page. Three blogs are already in the pilot, Jeff says. The box, below, is already on the WaPo home page in the lower right.

Micro Persuasion: Washington Post Launches Blogroll Ad Network

This is fascinating in a number of ways:

  1. It further calrifies that blogging, and it’s other social media kin, are not only important to the media landscape but that those we look to most for it increasingly recognize the value.
  2. It furthers the agenda that the content created has not just informational value, but also monetary. Too often, the tendency is to hang the “traffic carrot” in front of those less connected in exchange for their intellectual property. The Post has, gratefully, not chosen this route. A win-win doesn’t need to hurt.
  3. The landscape for social media “monetization” has broadened in a significant way and now begs some new questions for lots of the upstarts in the business - myself included: How do we work together? Who’s the next visionary?

I’ve been considering these things quite a bit as of late so it makes me happy to see it quickly becoming reality. We’ll be launching next month and extending this universe even further. More details in future posts.

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