Washington to sell ads on state ferries website

SEATTLE — Desperate for revenue, Washington will test the waters of Internet advertising with ads from the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau on the state ferries website. A spokeswoman in the governor’s office, Karina Shagren, says the ads will begin Jan. 3 on two pages that provide ferry schedule information and track vessels on Puget Sound. Depending on how things go, advertising could be expanded to websites of other state agencies. Because ads can’t be sold on .gov websites, Shagren says the pages will be converted to .com addresses, but they’ll be instantly linked. One state lawmaker who supports advertising on the government websites, Rep. Reuven Carlyle of Seattle, told KOMO News they could generate $4 to $5 million a year.