Comments on: When advertising becomes content, who wins — advertisers or publishers, or both?

By: Trace Cohen

Trace Cohen — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:00:11 +0000

What publisher wouldn’t take money to publish content they don’t have to produce? It’s found money and if done correctly helps the publisher, the advertiser the reader.

Will this solve the problem of a broken business model for most publishers? Definitely not sustainable.

By: Andrei Kelner

Andrei Kelner — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:59:23 +0000

Let’s push the discussion beyond news and move it over, to book publishing. We (www.bookata.com) are in the process of experimenting with a free children ibook, about pets adoption.

Will be free if we find a sponsor, and looking for one is a total transparent proposal to the readers. The reader, of course, will have the option to pay the full price of $0.99 if the whole sponsored content concept is found abhorrent.

By: Anne

Anne — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 13:57:23 +0000

Would anyone be able to direct me to some paid for content in place I could look at to get an idea of where it appears on sites/no. of words etc etc

Thanks in advance

Anne

By: franchesco teratoma

franchesco teratoma — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 18:16:39 +0000

Like all advertising, this article is self-serving. Who cares, change channels if you don’t like it.

“Brand Journalism” is, at its best, a bovine scatology who’s proponents were no doubt conceived by just putting the tip in.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 16:14:53 +0000

Ironically, Mr. Ingram, or by design, you have written an advertorial for your upcoming conference…..LOL. And that’s OK…except…I read the headline, read the article, and instead of answering any questions or taking a point of view about the whole issue….what I got was a list of questions that would be…well….maybe answered if I had the time to come to your great conference. Hrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmpppppppffffffffffff!

I don’t mind advertorial at all…..but let’s just let it be known what it is: An ad. And that’s ok. Let’s just mark it as such, OK?

By: hershberg

hershberg — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 16:04:11 +0000

I’m surprised there’s no mention of Google AdWords in this piece. It is, without question, the best example of native advertising. Not only are the ads indistinguishable from the content, they’re as relevant — and in some instances, even more relevant — than the organic results themselves.

By: whomes

whomes — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 08:13:34 +0000

It really depends on the market, and I don’t think that there’s a definitive answer. However, you cannot undervalue this kind of exposure for an advertiser, the benefits can include print run-ons for promotional use as well as long lasting online exposure. The kudos and authority given to a product or service when associated in this way with a reputable publication is extremely valuable. As a ballpark figure you should probably look at at least 4 times your on the page advertisement rate, but I have experienced publishers charging far higher than this..

By: Mike Donovan

Mike Donovan — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 23:57:47 +0000

With no rate list, how do publilshers and advertisers settle on a fair price for advertorial or sponsored articles.

By: Tom Wright

Tom Wright — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 11:07:05 +0000

Advertorial has been rehabilitated and given a new name so it can avoid regulation – much in the same way that spamming consumer and business buyers has become ‘marketing automation’.

There’s a place for sponsored content, there’s a place for vendor content, there’s a legitimate opportunity for publishers to make money from it.

There are those publishing ventures where the editorial is so thin, so PR based, and so stretched already this won’t make a difference – celebrity publishing springs to mind.

In the B2B world it would represent a deceit, and risks totally undermining trust with readers.

By: Tracy @ WSB

Tracy @ WSB — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 07:09:46 +0000

To Rex’s point: I was going to say, my first major editorial job was as editor of the “advertorial” sections of a long-dead daily newspaper, the Las Vegas Valley Times, in 1980, in very early adulthood. Advertorial’s nothing new. My main objection to the current state of things is that I’ve seen some sites run a mix with too many “sponsored posts.” The only “sponsored posts” we run are posts that introduce first-time advertisers (local SMBs – we don’t take or solicit national advertising) to our readers. They are clearly marked as such. And in regular coverage, we always identify our sponsors as such on first reference, regardless of whether it’s a news story, event preview, or calendar listing. I don’t know how deeply the readers care, but I care.