• The New York Times, Tuesday, April 4, 2006 10:17 AM

The Web is transforming political advertising and marketing, reports The New York Times. The days when campaign managers forked over most of their budgets to TV   are dwindling, as politcos find a new voice on the Web through Web sites, e-mail, blogs, podcasts, and chat. Simply put, the Web is more efficient and less costly than the traditional tools of politics, which have been TV, phone banks and door-to-door salesmanship. Perhaps most powerful (and most precarious!) for politicians is the viral nature of the Web. Online donations can bring in big bucks in incremental campaign revenue, but negative buzz generated in the blogosphere can eventually percolate into other media channels and effectively sink a campaign. The worst is when bloggers turn against a candidate of the same political affiliation: after Democrat Steve Elmendorf publicly dissed the effectiveness of blogging, a Daily Kos blogger wrote: "Not one dime, ladies and gentlemen, to anything connected with Steve Elmendorf. Anyone stupid enough to actually give a quote like that deserves to have every single one of his funding sources dry up." Nevertheless, Republicans and Democrats seem to agree that the effect of the Internet on politics will prove to be "every bit as transformational as television was," as Ken Mehlman, the Republican national chairman said.

Read the whole story at The New York Times »