L.A. Observed is pleased to introduce a new Premium Sponsor: The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. The community paper is published weekly on Fridays. Click on the logo at the the top of the right-hand column to read the latest issue, which has a front-page story on local Jews at the Democratic convention and a Q-and-A with the departing Israeli consul general in L.A.

This gives me an opening to encourage other publications, companies and institutions to look into becoming a sponsor. Here's the pitch. On the tangible side, sponsors get their name and weblink — and a message if they wish — posted prominently on every page. It will be seen by Los Angeles media types, communications professionals, public officials, writers and others engaged in L.A. life. The July traffic log shows the average weekday audience surpassed 3,400 "unique visitors." For the month they made 696,132 hits on the pages here. I'm thrilled by the numbers, but it's the rarefied nature of the readership that should be valuable to advertisers. L.A. Observed is read in the mayor's office, in the editor's office at the L.A. Times, and in most of the newsrooms and public relations shops in town.

Sponsors also enjoy the less tangible benefit of helping support L.A. Observed as the site expands as a community resource. In that vein, I'm offering a couple of new sponsorship levels. In addition to Premium Sponsorship, I welcome media, literary and community organizations that are non-profit and wish to support L.A. Observed to contact me about alternate arrangements. Also, through BlogAds, authors, independent bookstores, bloggers and other friends of L.A. Observed may now announce their latest works and events at a special reduced rate. For the details on all ad opportunities, see Be a Sponsor.

Nothing to advertise? You can still help support L.A. Observed. Click on the PayPal button below to make a voluntary subscription. As the site grows, the cost of storing the archives and buying bandwidth keeps increasing. If you need a little nudge, consider this: it's a one-person operation that is updated days, nights and most weekends and holidays. (Though there may be a short summer hiatus coming up—stay tuned.)

Finally, on the right you'll see a new BlogAd from the Hertzberg campaign for mayor. It showed up unsolicited, a total surprise. He's on other blogs, but I'm a journalist who is actively covering the race for mayor here and offline. I discussed it with several people and decided to accept the ad and others like it, based on my conclusion that blogs are both a news medium like TV, radio and newspapers, which run campaign ads, and also a new form of media where the rules need to adapt.

I don't think I can make this next part too clear: Campaign ads here do not represent an endorsement. I'll accept tasteful ads from any of the candidates, but I won't solicit them. Hertzberg et al need to know that their decision to advertise here or not changes nothing. I'll still cover their good points and bad, and give my take on how they are doing where I feel it serves readers. (My August 5th take on Hertzberg is that he's a wild card in the race but probably won't win. Hahn probably will, but who knows come March 2005.) That's how I try to approach campaign reporting, and it's easy in this case because I truly don't care who wins. Thoughts on my ad policy are welcome by email or in the public comments.

For those following the mayor's race, don't miss my new links to the candidates' websites in the left-hand column. Look for more enhancements soon.