I'm at the Kelsey Group's Local Marketplace conference in Seattle today and one of the speakers is Patricia Lee Smith from the Seattle Times Co. She talked a lot about the newly redesigned nwsource.com web site and said something that caught my attention, light of some recent discussion on this blog.

"Targeted advertising is content to (readers) and they welcome it," Lee said.

I tend to agree, but most of what we hear from readers is that all advertising online is created equal (and is evil). We don't receive many complaints about advertising in the newspaper, of course, but many people still feel that content wants to be free - and free of ads.

What do you think? Will you welcome advertising on our site - and other local sites - if it is local and relevant to where you live? (I hope so.)