Quotation for Today, January 2

2009 was the year of the advertorial in some media, ads disguised and dressed up or camouflaged as editorial.

Advertiser products got editorial plugs and under-resourced media more easily accepted PR puffery. News websites unquestioningly repeated press releases as bylined news items while in-house magazines – such as Telecom’s – stridently trumpeted themselves as independent. One view is that this is the evolution of media.

The argument is that all information is good information and consumers are smart enough to recognise paid content.

Another view is that the accelerated blurring between advertising and editorial undermines both.

John Drinnan – writing on media issues at NZ  Herald

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