Audi sponsors car blog

Via Signal vs Noise:

"Gawker Media launches three new blogs today: Jalopnik , a car site; Kotaku , for video games; and Screenhead .

The sponshorship model of Jalopnik is interesting too. Instead of selling a variety of ads, the site is starting out with Audi as its “exclusive launch sponsor.” Publisher Nick Denton says , “Rather than clutter the page with banners, [designer] Patric King has integrated Audi into the design of the page.” Note the Audi imagery, logos, and text in the header and elsewhere on the page. It’s an interesting new model for site advertising.

One thing though: The Audi tagline and URL seem perilously close. I presume “Never follow audiusa.com” isn’t the intended message."