OLYMPIA — Four years after the Department of Transportation started selling ads on its website on a trial basis, agency leaders are ready to make the practice permanent.
They’ve drafted a bill they hope lawmakers will approve in the 2016 session to give permanence to an undertaking projected to gross $80,000 a year.
“Our pilot project was created out of a budget proviso,” said Kris Reitmann deputy communications director for WSDOT. “It is time for it to move out of a pilot phase.”
Washington lawmakers agreed in 2009 to investigate the potential of making money off one of the most-visited state government websites.
It averaged 18.5 million views per month in 2015 and is at 11.5 million page views per month so far this year, according to DOT figures. That average could rise as demand for traveler information increases when it snows.
A year later they authorized the pilot project allowing advertisements and sponsorships on certain pages. Lawmakers insisted the DOT draw up guidelines on what kinds of vendors would be permitted to advertise and on which webpages the ads could appear.
The department sold its initial web ad in 2011 and became the first state agency generating revenue from its online presence.
The program has grossed $212,925 for the department, according to DOT figures. If the digital advertising program is made permanent, the department plans to dedicate the revenues to maintaining the DOT website, social media and mobile applications.
Ads are not sold on every page. They appear only on those with traffic maps, traveler information and a few pages for Washington State Ferries.
Advertisers are firms whose business is oriented toward those traveling in cars for work or pleasure such as tire dealers, hoteliers and ski resort operators.
“We run a pretty conservative program,” Reitmann said. “We’re really selective of what we choose.”
The transportation department is no longer the only government agency with an online ad program.
A 2014 law authorized the Parks and Recreation Commission to do so as a means of raising money for the state’s cash-strapped parks system. The commission is following the trail blazed by the DOT by limiting where advertising may appear on its website and who may purchase it.
Ad sales only began a few weeks ago. Before it could start, the commission had to remake its web presence because advertising is not allowed on public agency websites using the .gov domain — which is what state parks had.
Now, state parks’ longtime web address is a portal to a new site housed on a different domain in which online advertising is permitted.
Once established, the agency isn’t expected to net large sums of money as the program will be run as conservatively as that of the DOT.
Potential advertisers will be those businesses with products and services of interest to outdoor recreation enthusiasts that are in sync with the mission of Washington State Parks, he said.
For example, click on a link to Cama Beach Historical State Park and you’ll see a small ad for Cama Beach Café &Catering.
“The intention of this was not strictly a money-making function,” said Daniel Farber, the commission’s government relations director. “It is also to build partnerships and connect with the community.”
Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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