[Sigia-l] Flash Ads At The New York Times

[William Quimby]

I just wonder which of you recommended that the 
New York Times utilize Flash ads - repeating,
recycling, repeating, recycling Flash ads on their
site? Is this an issue that falls within the
purview of IA? Within the purview of user-centered?

I have asked The Times for an explanation and was
told

 >I'm sorry that you feel that some of the 
 >advertising is annoying. But please realize that 
 >you are reading perhaps the best journalistic 
 >product in the world without having to pay for 
 >it. I'm not suggesting that you would personally 
 >be opposed to paying directly for our web site, 
 >but so far very few Internet readers have 
 >evidenced a willingness to pay for content. So 
 >this explains our need to accommodate our 
 >advertising clients in order to pay the bills.

I have followed the Flash Good<>Flash Not Good 
arguments on this discussion list, but now wonder
if anybody is out there saying "Hey, if the
user doesn't dig the result screw the user?"

And yes, I realize - if I don't like what the 
Times is doing I can just as well go to the
Zanesville, Ohio Tribune site, right? I mean,
what do I lose by being turned off a major 
cultural resource? (And being from Ohio, they may 
not yet have heard of Flash :)  )

- Bill