Say what you will about the Drudge Report's bare-bones layout and Web 1.0 design, but links on the site still drive large volumes of traffic and define the media agenda. As the above ad demonstrates, Portfolio, the closely monitored glossy business magazine that Condé Nast has pledged $100 million to getting off the ground, has figured out how to procure links with minimal effort: pay for them.
The genius of Portfolio's ad, of course, is that it looks like an authentic Drudge Link. No service or product is being hawked; you could easily click on the story and not realize it was an ad. In fact, the subject matter—evil fast food giants!—isn't that far removed from most of the non-advertiser links found on the page. Very crafty, Joanne Lipman!