Should Wikipedia Sell Advertising?

The Narrative Fallacy writes "The LA Times has an interesting story on the state of Wikipedia's finances and how with 300 million page views a day, the organization could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars if it sold advertising space. Without advertising the foundation has a tough time raising its annual budget of $4.6 million. The 45,000 or so individuals who contribute annually give an average of $33 each, so campaigns, which are conducted online, raise only about one-third of what's needed. As Wikimedia adds features to its pages, such as videos, costs will rise. 'Without financial stability and strong planning, the foundation runs the risk of needing to take drastic steps at some point in the next couple years,' said Nathan Awrich, a Wikipedia editor who supports advertising."

Comments

Since they are deleting articles anyway...

[Aceto3for5]

If they don't want to "ruin their integrity" they could only put advertising on the sites they deem unworthy. Those sort of articles are likely to be more in line with advertising anyway. While reading about "Who's the Boss" you could buy it on DVD. It just kind of makes sense. The article on weapons grade uranium could pull up some interesting google ads, though...

Re:Prepare yourself

[Deltaspectre]

The cake is a lie.

Re:Oooh.

[christurkel]

So how long have you been on the Board of Wikipedia?

Re:Oooh.

[MrNaz]

I wholeheartedly agree with you. I don't understand why Jimbo's transgressions get such venomous criticism while the Bush family can embezzle money from the US taxpayer with contrived contracts to his cronies' organisations.

Get some perspective people, there are real fish to fry.