Pitchfork have finally relauched with a new design (intended for the 10th, then the 11th, actually deployed on the 13th). ADS! THE ADS HURT MY EYES! It'll look alright if the ads weren't there or didn't move, but if you stare at it long enough you go into some kind of trance. The colour scheme they've chosen looks nice, but serves to push the actual content into the background, I'm not sure if they told the design team about the extremity of the ads, but maybe they would have made it different if they knew how much the ads would flash.
As Slatch points out, if these rates are accurate, then who cares?
There's a piece on Popmatters about the effect of tv and movies on some pitchfork favourites, but they're not really sell-outs (not that it says that they are) because these bands (The Shins, Death Cab for Cutie, The Walkmen) produced the music then got famous, I don't think they produced the music to get famous. Of course, other examples include Rooney and The Killers, where the opposite may be true.
The same thing happened to pitchfork I think, it started off as something generated from enthusiasm, and still is, but now it's hugely influential and really rather lucrative.