Turns out it’s not just the hardtracking staff that thinks native advertising is a menace to editorial integrity.
Exhibit A
This piece headlined “What the Atlantic learned from Scientology: native advertising is harder for news brands” in the aptly named paidContent:
At an ad industry event in New York on Wednesday, an Atlantic Digital executive explained what the company had learned from a January debacle involving the Church of Scientology. (In case you missed it, the Atlantic pushed the boundaries of so-called “native advertising” by publishing a feel-good “sponsored story” about the religion — or cult, if you prefer — that included only positive reader comments.)
“The biggest mistake in retrospect was that it wasn’t harmonious to our site and it didn’t bring any value to our readers,” said VP and General Manager Kimberly Lau . . .
Harmonious to our site? More like harm-ominous to their readers . . .
Read the rest at Sneak Adtack.
