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Independent French news site Rue89.com has created an 'advertising wall' to build revenue for its website.

Based on the idea of 'The Million Dollar' website, developed by student Alex Tew, advertisers can buy 'bricks' to display their logos for between 15 and 349 euros for a year.

Within the first 10 days of launching the scheme, revenue generated by the wall accounted for half of what had been predicted for a year, Pierre Haski, editor-in-chief of Rue89.com, told delegates at the Digital News Affairs (DNA) 2009 conference .

"We are looking for unconventional income, because we believe display advertising alone will not be enough to sustain a company such as ours," he said.

The wall has created additional revenue channels for revenue with media companies asking to buy the design, Haski added.

The site has also developed training courses and a web design agency, and syndicates some content in a bid to build a multidimensional business model, he said.

"We're not making money yet, but by adding up those sources of income we believe we've created an economic model where we will get to the stage where we won't just survive the economic crisis, we'll come out stronger the other side," said Haski.

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Written by

Laura Oliver
Laura Oliver
Laura Oliver is a freelance journalist, a contributor to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, co-founder of The Society of Freelance Journalists and the former editor of Journalism.co.uk (prior to it becoming JournalismUK)

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