August 1, 2005

the blur between editorial content and ads is not only happening online

I was just writing about how editorial content and ads (in this case through content-link-ads) merged and that it is even less apparent to users, what’s advertising and what’s not. And then I found this article saying that the same is happening in a couple of free dailies.

This blogpost also links to a page about the ethics of journalism, one them being:

Distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two.

I guess the fact that advertising (online and offline) has ever increasing difficulties reaching their target audience with relevant messages in relevant settings, this is just a logical sequence. However I fear this kind of trend, as it will completely blur the lines of commercial “information” (<-- ads) and information in general.

(via)

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