John Kerry: first presidential candidate targeting advertising to blogs

Ads for John Kerry’s presidential campaign are running on four sites this AM.

For you news junkies, this is groundbreaking. Blogs are extraordinarily cheap AND influential, and it is great that a national campaign has caught on to advertising on the blogging medium.

There are also some important philosophical ground to plow. Josh Marshall sketches a policy for accepting ads from campaigns he covers.

Atrios’ post on advertising provokes a vigorous debate in his comments section. “Advertising is evil,” writes one reader. Another says, “Don’t apologize, don’t wring your hands, don’t look back. You need to exist, and it costs money.”

The bottom line: bloggers have the lowest overheads in media and the most passionate audiences. Buying 5 million page impressions on blogs costs less than $3000. The same ads on WashingtonPost.com or NYTimes.com would cost $125,000+… which would you buy?