Loophole Could Send Campaign Money To Web Sites

By: Carl Sullivan Could the campaign-finance-reform law that takes effect Nov. 6 send flush political advertisers scurrying to newspaper Web sites with their dollars? It's not as far-fetched a notion as it might seem.

The McCain-Feingold law restricts "soft money" political advertising on radio and TV, but it specifically exempts the Internet from those spending restrictions. So big corporations and other groups that have spent to their hearts' content on behalf of political candidates for so-called issue ads on TV may now turn to the Web to do their unregulated spending.

"There are real opportunities for Web sites to attract campaign-advertising dollars," said Karen A.B. Jagoda, president of e-Voter Institute, a Washington-based trade group that promotes online solutions for politics. "Those sites that require registration will be extremely useful for candidates in terms of targeting voters by ZIP codes."

One caveat: Several legislators, led by U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., sued the Federal Election Commission on Oct. 8 to close the Internet loophole that will allow soft money to be spent online. But the FEC says Congress didn't include the Internet in the soft money ban when the original legislation was passed.

In the meantime, some newspapers already have been drawing a fair share of election-related Web advertising. The New York Times on the Web accepted its first political ads in 1998, said Jason Krebs, the site's vice president of sales.

Krebs noted that attracting political advertisers is hard work. Campaigns "don't have the most efficient media-planning departments," he said. "They're very skilled with what they want to say, but not always sure of the best places to say it." And, of course, there's no continuity from one campaign to the next. Krebs said his staff communicates with Democratic and Republican party operations in an effort to keep the dialogue going in the off-season.

To date, candidates have tended to approach news Web sites in the final days of the campaign, when they're looking to spend surplus funds. While politics has been a small category for The New York Times' site, the revenues are significant for the month prior to the election, Krebs said.

"I think there should be more political advertising" on news Web sites, Krebs said. He pointed to a two-month campaign last year for New York mayoral candidate Michael R. Bloomberg, now mayor, which served banner ads based on the demographics and location of the user.

Krebs advises other newspapers that want to go after the political pot to keep it simple. "Just focus on who your audience is -- the size of the audience and their education levels," which are typically higher for Web sites than other media, he said. "Don't focus on the technology."