John Kerry's fund-raising success in the last few months must be attributed, in part, to a strategy I think was put in place by Zack Exley, an online operative formerly with Moveon.org. (That's him, from a 2001 Yale conference.)

Why you're reading about it here first I will never know, but here it is, exclusive.

Exley has urged the buying of Internet ad space on major news sites all over the place. In all my clicking for news these last weeks I have found no sites with Bush ads, but dozens with Kerry ads, often in prominent places, on the front page. That's the most expensive real estate a news site has, although a full campaign on such a location must cost bupkis next to the cost of a single 30-second TV spot in a major market. See for yourself. (It's not like the GOP doesn't know who this guy is.)

The ads are interesting because they often use Flash graphics, so they consist of several rotating images. They also ask for small change, usually $50. (That's a magic number in marketing -- people won't think as hard about $50 as they will about, say, $60.) They are not subtle, they are clever. And the Democratic National Committee has recently begun doing the same thing.

It's one of the few campaign moves that has gone totally unremarked upon, and (most important) has gone uncopied. Why hasn't the news business covered this story? (I just checked again -- the only articles Google has about Exley involve his hiring and his previous work with Moveon.) I'm just asking. Your guess is as good as mine.