NCCo to host ads on website

New Castle County Councilman Timothy Sheldon is finally is getting his way.

Last year, the Pike Creek Democrat proposed selling advertising on the county's website as a means of raising new revenue and on Tuesday, Communications Director Angie Basiouny said the government would do just that.

Through a division of Google called AdSense, themed advertisements will be placed in the right-hand column of nearly every page on the county's website. The Clerk of the Peace page, for example, may have advertisements for wedding vendors or jewelers while the dog-licensing page could have pet store ads, Basiouny explained.

The advertisements would be all text, similar to a classified, and clicking on one would take browsers to a larger, remotely hosted ad with more information designed by that company.

"We sign up for the service and Google does all the work," Basiouny said. "The money that we generate is based on the number of click throughs."
How much new revenue will be raised is anybody's guess, however, as the formula Google uses to calculate it is proprietary. The county received 723,495 total web hits last month.

"All we do is sign up for the service and we get a check at the end of the month," she said, adding that the county will use the service for the next three to six months and then evaluate whether the revenue it brings in justifies continuing it.

Google does give the county the ability to limit the types of advertisements it hosts, and ads for dating sites, drugs and supplements, cosmetic surgeries, politics, sexual products and religious organizations will not be allowed, according to Basiouny. Businesses that do business with the government will also be blocked.

Councilman Robert Weiner (R-Chatham), who had spoken out against the plan because of fears the county could be sued for excluding certain advertisers, said he was much more comfortable having a middle man like Google.

"This puts us out of contact with the vendors and I'm much more comfortable with that," he said.

County Attorney Gregg Wilson said he found very few other municipalities advertising on their websites, and therefore little legal precedent governing it. Still, he said he was confident that using Google "insulates" the county.

"This doesn't seem to expose us to much risk," he said.

The county does however risk a backlash from some residents who don't think their government ought to be allowing private companies to peddle their wares, Basiouny acknowledged.

Sheldon, however, had a warning for those people.

"The alternative is we raise your taxes," he said. "I proposed this because I don't want [that] to be our only option."