
Paying journalists to promote brands in articles - pmcpinto
https://theoutline.com/post/2978/these-are-the-people-paying-journalists-to-promote-brands-in-articles
======
ChuckMcM
This would happen less if the people writing the stories were paid more (so it
removes some temptation on the writers part).

The problem isn't new though. After I had written a few articles for the old
BYTE magazine I had the weird experience of being called up, at home (this is
before Cell phones), by a company with an expensive schematic design package
call me up and ask if I'd like a copy of their software. It was pretty clear
they were angling to get a positive mention/review into BYTE and I turned them
down, the then called Editor-in-chief Fred Langa. He laughed and said that now
I was a "true" BYTE author since it indicated I had enough visibility to
attract the attention of the advertisers.

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kartan
"2.1 Advertisements must be obviously distinguishable from editorial content,
especially if they use a situation, performance or style reminiscent of
editorial content, to prevent the audience being confused between the two. The
audience should quickly recognise the message as an advertisement."

[https://www.asa.org.uk/type/broadcast/code_section/02.html](https://www.asa.org.uk/type/broadcast/code_section/02.html)

~~~
igravious
“ – Deny favored treatment to advertisers, donors or any other special
interests, and resist internal and external pressure to influence coverage.

– Distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines
between the two. Prominently label sponsored content. ”

[https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp](https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp)
(Society of Professional Journalists)

“ 2.3 Readers are entitled to expect that the content of the press reflects
the best judgment of editors and writers and has not been inappropriately
influenced by undisclosed interests. Wherever relevant, any significant
financial interest of an organization should be disclosed. Writers should
disclose significant potential conflicts of interest to their editors. ”

[http://www.presscouncil.ie/code-of-practice](http://www.presscouncil.ie/code-
of-practice)

There may actually be a technological fix for this. One can use [computational
stylometry]([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylometry#Current_research](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylometry#Current_research))
to analyse a blogger's (sorry, I mean journalist's) written output. The algo
performs clustering, any articles not written by the author are shown up as
outliers. Author attribution works because everybody uses function words
differently from each other but fairly consistently over time. If an author
has 150+ articles you'd definitely spot copy that came from another source I'd
say!

------
chiefalchemist
If you're getting paid to do this you are not a journalist. Can we please stop
using the word journalist / journalism when we mean: reporter, hack, whore,
propagandist, marketer, etc.?

~~~
closed
Could you give an example where you've seen someone use the word "journalist"
when you think they should have been using "whore"?

~~~
ASalazarMX
I propose a middle ground with "whorenalist".

~~~
dmschulman
"influencer blogger"

------
gk1
This isn’t a secret among marketers. They talk about it very openly amongst
themselves.

This is why, when you see the Forbes, Inc, Business Insider, or HuffPo logo on
the site of an “expert” or startup company, you know they are
bullshitting—those “press mentions” were, most likely, paid for.

~~~
toomanybeersies
In both the current company I work in, and the company before that, we had
articles written about us that were pushed by the company.

I don't think that money was involved, but the marketing copy (wait, sorry,
the "article") was basically written by us, and sent to the journos with some
photos. All they had to do is upload it to the news site.

Makes an workday for the journo, and the company gets some publicity. Win-win
for everyone, except people that enjoy reading quality, impartial content,
rather than advertisements dressed up as legitimate articles.

~~~
Veen
This is largely how "guest blogging" works too. Marketing agencies hire
writers who create content for their clients. The agencies then give the
content to publishers for free, and it's published under a pseudonymous byline
or the byline of an executive that typically includes a link to the client.

When you see an article in Forbes written by a CEO or some other executive,
it's often ghost written by a marketing agency's writers.

------
Buge
This is illegal right? Warner Bros. had an FTC settlement because they paid
youtubers for video game reviews, and that fact wasn't disclosed by many of
the youtubers.

[https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-
releases/2016/07/warne...](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-
releases/2016/07/warner-bros-settles-ftc-charges-it-failed-adequately-
disclose-it)

~~~
makomk
Probably is, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if parts of the press just
didn't think the FTC rules applied to them. (I know they had to have sharp
words with quite a few publications about actually following their rules on
affiliate links, and that's a lot more publicly visible and easy to prove than
the stuff alleged here.)

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wyck
Pretty obvious when you read practically anything these days that PR has taken
over not just promotions but the entire narrative.

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sudouser
sites like reddit are plagued of users inserting brands into the comment,
seems like a place full of marketers...

~~~
rb808
Totally agree, I wrote about it on my blog
[http://myblogclickhere.com/lookatmyblog.html](http://myblogclickhere.com/lookatmyblog.html).

~~~
toomanybeersies
I really enjoy reading that blog on my LG Ultrawide monitor!

~~~
hartator
The new Dell 38” 21:9 is actually way better!

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ghaff
It’s a stretch to call the people accepting these payments journalists
although the lines are admittedly blurry these days.

~~~
a3n
NPR does this. I don't like it. "... blah blah. For more on this story, Joan
Smith joins us via Skype."

The sound quality is often terrible, and this being _radio_ they could have
easily done this over high quality phone.

But I'm sure NPR gets "support" from Microsoft for this.

How soon before "Joan Smith joins us via Verizon, with her LG phone."

~~~
HappyRobot
Skype requires a verbal announcement if used on a broadcast. It does feel
weird, but it's the cost of using free software.
[https://www.skype.com/en/legal/broadcast/](https://www.skype.com/en/legal/broadcast/)

~~~
intrasight
Is enough of a reason that journalists should dump Skype

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janlukacs
Funny no one mentions Google, all this is done purely for the SEO juice. We've
heard it for years, links don't matter that much these days.. but in fact they
do matter.

Imho Google needs to fix this, not the content farms that Google thinks are
"trusted" news sources.

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neya
I always dreamed of a news site that is just like Wikipedia, but has the
mechanics of HN (upvote, downvote, flag, etc.). So that, you can weed out all
these middlemen agents and crooked journalists who poison our news
consumption.

~~~
scrollaway
Because upvotes and downvotes did such a wonderful job of keeping shilling off
reddit?

I don't follow.

~~~
neya
> but has the mechanics of HN

> keeping shilling off reddit?

They do a pretty good job on HN. That's my point. I understand why you cite
Reddit, but that's not my point.

~~~
TheCoelacanth
Clearly the mechanics of upvoting/downvoting don't prevent shilling at scale.
HN is just small enough to not attract large numbers of dedicated shills.

------
txsh
These journalists should just call their critics racist and sexist. It worked
during the Gamergate scandal.

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banderman
I wish that TV shows and movies had to disclose which companies paid for
product/brand placement.

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cdurth
We do it for our politicians...why stop there

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yostrovs
Since the publishing industry as a whole is on the edge of bankruptcy, this is
just a response to ad blockers not being able to block these kinds of ads. You
didn't want ads, you get them anyway as part of fake reporting.

People running ad blockers shouldn't have an opinion on how publishers run
their operations. It's just tit for tat.

------
cyberjunkie
A vicious cycle that's triggered by a perpetually degenerative and complacent
society. This is a problem that runs through everything - social media,
education, health sectors, the job market, etc. Marketing something that's
really worth little as being world changing.

To the point of paid journaliists.

The media isn't paid well, not nearly as good as other career options
(depending on where you are). It's because journalism (magazines, TV shows and
web sites) are expected to pay for a service for free. They need to pay
salaries, buy equipment, operate their business. This money has to come from
advertisements.

Advertisers, marketeers, PR folk are constantly paying less because there are
abundant channels to pick from (web sites, magazines, TV channels) to promote
their brands. There's someone who'll accept little to do the same job. The
concept of an 'advertorial' is fading. Advetisers know their agenda gets
diluted / ignored by using advertorials, so they've found a marketing gimmick
to do the same - promote their content through legit channels and that's what
we see. This is what earns them their bread and butter.

When journalists look at other media houses getting a piece of the pie (big
exclusive breaks, perks and good relations with big names), they want it too,
so they become more willing to do so. We as consumers of journalistic media
aren't willing to pay them neither do we don't want the ads either.

As a society, we're only getting 'cheaper'. Perception owns more importance
than reality. We love what we consume, it stimulates us what politicians say,
what products we see our stars eat, drink, use. Advertisers and media provide
what is demanded.

~~~
tyu100
Tone down the moral panic. The 'Style', 'Food' and 'Travel' sections in
newspapers have been bought forever and this is more of the same in a
different era.

I've always been most interested in why European goods are seen as luxurious
in North America despite usually objectively being nothing special (wines that
aren't any better in blind taste tests, cars of average reliability, bogus
health claims of olive oil). You can usually trace this back to some mid-20th
century group of journalists or experts getting a fully paid trip to Italy or
France by some interested industry group.

