Here’s an interested tidbit from a Guardian article about online advertising:
For publishers, the fact that online advertising is beginning to come of age is undoubtedly good news. Guardian Unlimited will break even for the first time this financial year, largely on pursuing a model of advertising revenue – something that only as recently as three years ago many industry pundits thought would be impossible.
I’d always assumed that most newspapers ran their online presence as a loss-leader – especially those who don’t charge the end-user for their content.
Guardian Unlimited is one of the biggest and most ambitious news sites out there, but if they can break even now (and hopefully turn a profit in the future) we could be seeing the beginnings of a shift in how newspapers are funded.