Washington Post Goes to Ads in RSS

Hot off PR Newswire, Washingtonpost.com is going to start pushing ads in its RSS feeds starting July 15. From the release ... RSS (Real Simple syndication) feeds, making it the first major news site to offer ad units in its syndication streams. To launch on July 15 in its Top News, Politics and Opinion feeds, the ads will be part of a unique campaign integrating RSS ads, online video, behavioral targeting and standard ad delivery. The launch partner for the campaign is the MSNBC nightly news and commentary program, The Situation with Tucker Carlson. This is great that the first large media site is going to push ads via RSS. And, this is terrible, because the first large media site is going to push ads via RSS. Why's it great - well, it shows that RSS is ready for prime time, and that the Post expects more people to adopt RSS to read the paper and the feeds. Why's it terrible - easy, it's the spamification of RSS. Yes, I know that the media needs to pay reporters, and needs to find new revenue streams for the downturn in circulation and readers of the paper. But, at the same time, I wonder if this is the first step down the slippery slope (yes, logical fallacy) of RSS becoming perverted. At Nooked (disclosure: client) hosted a Robert Scoble, Target or Walmart - the RSS feeds of coupons and specials. (Yes, Steve Rubel has his take that this will happen more and more, particularly as more brand RSS aggregators. Jeremy Pepper is the CEO and founder of Musings from POP! Public Relations blog which offers Jeremy's opinions and views - on public relations, publicity and other things.