Amazoning the news
"Amazoning the news" -- a whitepaper on how news would look if it were given the "Amazon.com" treatment. Not bad. (I hope Amazon doesn't jump on this and start covering the news too-- I think they already may have bitten off more than they can chew with the dozens of stores they already operate.)
Anyway..... the mock-up images for news and sports offer an intruiging look at how you can improve your content delivery to give more information value to your readers. I would definitely switch to such a news site if it existed. It's cool how they combine e-Commerce with the news-- team jerseys and tickets you can buy for the sports news; and a click-through point system to encourage and reward exploration for the general news page.
Noticably absent from their mock-ups are the advertisements. But perhaps they are gone because they don't work. Instead, the e-commerce ties can provide revenue. Here's a thought-- what if ads on a site disappeared once you spent a certain amount at the store? Kind of a subscription model, but at least you get something of value above hiding the ads. Just a thought....