Product Placement: Coming soon to a news site near you...
Let's hope not.
Today, Google announced a new (beta) ad format that will allow publishers to hyperlink ads within stories. In essensce, someone might write about the virtues of French Press coffee, and mousing over text that says "French Press coffee yields a bolder, richer flavor than standard automatic drip" would display an ad for Bodum, which produces French Press pots with an "Ads by Google" display.
I think that this poses a serious problem not necessarily for large news sites, such as USAToday.com or CNN.com, which (I hope, I pray) would not engage advertising in this way.
However what of citizen jurnos, producing reported content? There is indeed a fine line between external linking for more context and content and including links to generate ad revenue.
I fear that this might confuse editorial with advertorial content in a way that will make it increasingly difficult for end-users to understand what they're reading.
Michael Arrington posted a very thoughtful criticism on TechCrunch, but so far I see few others debating this issue...I'm hoping that will change, and fast.