It does seem that the highly controversial ‘native advertising’ will be ready to run on New York Times from January. The controversy stems from the fact that in its look, such ads will be presented similar to an article, but with information provided by the marketers. Critics complain that this could confuse readers about where editorial content ends and advertising begins.
Arthur Sulzberger Jr., NYT’s publisher, acknowledged as much in a letter to employees. Though controversial, he felt the platform could restore digital ad revenues into growth territory.
A colour bar and the words ‘Paid Post’ enable readers to identify material as advertising content, according to the NYT announcement. It will also be a different team producing the native ads.
The main idea of such an ad is to blend with the journalistic content. Until now, there are no specific regulations for such ads. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released the ‘IAB Native Advertising Playbook’ that provides the industry with a framework, while some publications have their own guidelines.
Last week, Arianna Huffington announced that advertisers can publish native ads in real-time on the Huffington Post homepage. This means digital agencies can create branded content within tight deadlines in a native ad format, but more expensive and prominent than traditional ad formats. Advertisers will have their brand content published online in about two hours, increasing the chances of seeing the brand linked to a subject or report that is still in high demand among online users.
The native ad format varies from text style, tweet, video and slideshows. An orange sticker that says ‘Partner Content’ will label the native ad on the HuffPo homepage.
