YouTube has started to offer paid search ads in order to allow people drive traffic to their clips. This service is part of YouTube’s new platform and it is called YouTube Sponsored Videos. This clip provides a quick overview of how it works.

It looks like YouTube has found a powerful business model –advertiser pays only if the visitor clicks on that sponsored video. Analysts speculate now with the idea of Google linking its traditional search ads with YouTube search ads. If so, Google could become a force in video advertising.

“YouTube democratizes the broadcast experience, and now we we are democratizing the promotional and advertising experience as well. This is the first step in that direction,” says YouTube’s speaker.


New trend in community news: Going nonprofit to survive

Consider this new model for community news: switching to non profit organization. This is what the Northwest regional news site Crosscut.com is doing. The goal is to pay the bills, getting streams of revenue from donors and members.

His publisher explains: “It puts the public interest back into journalism, and it helps to reconnect readers/members with the site in ways that the interactive features of the web make more natural and illuminating.” Similar samples are MinnPost.com and VoiceofSanDiego.org.


CNN tries to be the next AP

CNN studies to launch a new wire service now that newspapers are dropping the old AP. “CNN Newsource” is the current affiliate video service that just about every local TV station subscribes to. Analysts say that CNN Wire could be a game changer.

Right now, CNN is in some ways as big as the AP. CNN boasts 3,800 employees and 37 bureaus, 900 TV affiliates, a web site, radio network and two cable networks.

Next month the company will host a “newspaper summit”.


Gannett acquires social media provider Ripple6

Gannett has acquired social net tools provider Ripple6 to create online communities for its own properties and outside media companies. Terms were not disclosed. Ripple6, a leading provider of social media services headquartered in New York City, has been powering some of the social features on Gannett’s MomsLikeMe network of sites.

In a press release, president of Gannett said: “With the Ripple6 platform, we can help users create communities and connect with their friends and family in a highly pleasing ways, while providing marketers with innovative advertising opportunities and measurable results.”

“From the moment we began working with Ripple6, we realized we had found a company that is richly innovative and can change the way social media is offered and monetized online,” added.

In addition to MomsLikeMe.com sites (more than 1 million moms visiting each month), Ripple6 also powers social media properties for Procter & Gamble and MixingBowl.com, Meredith Corporation’s social network around meals and meal planning.


Microsoft jumps into the social network game

Microsoft is launching a new version of Windows Live. There the content is organized into a Facebook-like feed (see a screen grab here ; see the demo video). Content comes from Fickr, Twitter, LinkdIn, Yelp and many more outside services (except MySpace and Facebook, because these two are not publishing their RSS feeds) along with existing Microsoft services like email and Messenger.

Experts say that Microsoft is too late in the social networking game, despite they recognize now the value of social tools.

Microsoft seeks here to create a central place for Internet users to monitor and manage their digital lives… without leaving Windows Live.