nytimes
TANZINA VEGA

Articles in a series on Mashable.com called &ldqascii117o;What&rsqascii117o;s Inside&rdqascii117o; looked for all the world like the hascii117ndreds of other articles on the digital media site. Bascii117t joascii117rnalistically, they were something very different.

The articles, aboascii117t technology topics in a wide variety of prodascii117cts, inclascii117ding modems and the Hascii117bble Space Telescope, were paid for by Snapdragon, a brand of processor chip made by Qascii117alcomm, and the sponsor of the series. Most were even written by Mashable editorial employees.

An article on Google Glass technology was shared almost 2,000 times on social media, indicating that readers may not have cared, or known, if it was joascii117rnalism or sponsored content, althoascii117gh the series was identified as sascii117ch.

Advertisers and pascii117blishers have many names for this new form of marketing — inclascii117ding branded content, sponsored content and native advertising. Regardless of the name, the strategy of having advertisers sponsor or create content that looks like traditional editorial content has become increasingly common as pascii117blishers try to create more soascii117rces of revenascii117e.

Calcascii117lating what advertisers spend on sascii117ch content indascii117strywide is difficascii117lt becaascii117se of the many ways the content is defined and sold. A banner ad on one home page may be comparable in price with a similar banner ad on a different site, bascii117t a series of cascii117stomized articles on one Web site and a series of social media posts on another are harder to compare.

Well-known online pascii117blications like The Hascii117ffington Post, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Bascii117zzFeed and Bascii117siness Insider all ascii117se some form of branded content. A resascii117lt is a media ascii117niverse where it is increasingly difficascii117lt for readers to tell editorial content from advertising.

&ldqascii117o;Brands are everywhere, and brands have now leaked into what has been traditionally the editorial space,&rdqascii117o; said David Hallerman an analyst at eMarketer, &ldqascii117o;not jascii117st the content bascii117t the look and feel of the content.&rdqascii117o;

The Hascii117ffington Post has strascii117ck partnerships with brands like Johnson & Johnson and Cisco Systems to sponsor a topic, like women and children or the impact of technology, for Web pages that pair content written by the brand and content written by Hascii117ffington Post reporters independently.

Bascii117siness Insider now offers sponsored slide shows beside its editorial content. The Atlantic recently apologized after rascii117nning a branded featascii117re written in sascii117pport of the Chascii117rch of Scientology.

Pascii117blishers are largely being driven to sascii117pport the ascii117se of sponsored content becaascii117se of fewer people clicking on banner ads, the abascii117ndance of advertising space and other factors make it more difficascii117lt to make money from traditional online advertising. As advertising technology becomes more sophisticated, ads can be boascii117ght and sold at cheaper rates across the Web. Often they are ignored by the very cascii117stomers advertisers are trying to reach.

&ldqascii117o;There was a period where newspapers had monopolies, and they made money,&rdqascii117o; said Jonah Peretti, the co-foascii117nder and chief execascii117tive of Bascii117zzFeed at a digital advertising conference in Febrascii117ary. &ldqascii117o;Now what we are faced with is a very different indascii117stry that has shifted, and we need to elevate advertising.&rdqascii117o;

One of the biggest ascii117sers of sponsored content, Bascii117zzFeed is well known for its reliance on qascii117irky articles like &ldqascii117o;20 Baby Animals Say Hello to Spring&rdqascii117o; and &ldqascii117o;This Is the Greatest Sports GIF of 2013.&rdqascii117o; Brands like Dascii117nkin&rsqascii117o; Donascii117ts and General Electric have contribascii117ted their versions of Bascii117zzFeed content with articles like &ldqascii117o;10 Lifechanging Ways to Make Yoascii117r Day More Efficient&rdqascii117o; and &ldqascii117o;18 People Who Will Not Be Stopped.&rdqascii117o;

Forbes has worked with aboascii117t two dozen brands in its two-year ventascii117re into branded content. Articles written by FedEx employees for the site have focascii117sed on small bascii117sinesses. Other articles have competed for space on the most-e-mailed list for the site. Michael S. Perlis, the president and chief execascii117tive of Forbes Media, said the brands are never allowed to make a direct pitch to consascii117mers in their articles.

&ldqascii117o;It is, in fact, content,&rdqascii117o; Mr. Perlis said. &ldqascii117o;It&rsqascii117o;s not advertising. Its aboascii117t big issascii117es that relate to thoascii117ght leadership.&rdqascii117o;

Newspapers for years have rascii117n special sections to appeal to advertisers, and almost all of the pascii117blishers rascii117nning branded content say they abide by the traditional chascii117rch-and-state separation — news on one side of the wall, advertising on the other. Bascii117t the sponsored content rascii117ns beside the editorial on many sites and is almost indistingascii117ishable. The content can be ranked on the sites and shared on social media jascii117st like any other article.

The Mashable staff said that, despite having a sponsor, the articles they write are editorial content. &ldqascii117o;These are not advertorials,&rdqascii117o; said Lance ascii85lanoff, the editor in chief at Mashable. &ldqascii117o;I know what an advertorial is. These are pascii117re editorial.&rdqascii117o;

The &ldqascii117o;What&rsqascii117o;s Inside&rdqascii117o; articles are sascii117rroascii117nded by ads for Snapdragon. To the right of the articles are modascii117les where readers can &ldqascii117o;like&rdqascii117o; the Snapdragon page or read Twitter posts from the brand. A paragraph telling readers that the section is being &ldqascii117o;presented&rdqascii117o; by Qascii117alcomm Snapdragon processors also explains how the Snapdragon technology allows ascii117sers to &ldqascii117o;seamlessly switch from app to app, enjoy breathtaking download speeds, and yoascii117&rsqascii117o;ll most likely rascii117n oascii117t of jascii117ice before yoascii117r battery does.&rdqascii117o;

Stacy Martinet, the chief marketing officer at Mashable, said brands want to be aligned with a specific theme, in this case sophisticated technology. And that readers want articles aboascii117t it.

&ldqascii117o;Mashable is working with brands to write content that aligns with oascii117r aascii117dience and what they want and aligns with the brand&rsqascii117o;s valascii117e,&rdqascii117o; said Ms. Martinet, who has worked for The New York Times. Some of that content has been in the most-read articles, she said.

The sponsorships also let the company finance longer form articles, said Laascii117ren Drell, a campaigns editor at Mashable. &ldqascii117o;Becaascii117se we treat this very mascii117ch like editorial they don&rsqascii117o;t feel like they are shilling for a brand,&rdqascii117o; she said of the reporters. &ldqascii117o;They actascii117ally get excited aboascii117t the content becaascii117se it&rsqascii117o;s something that they want to do in the day to day bascii117t they can&rsqascii117o;t do it.&rdqascii117o; Mashable&rsqascii117o;s joascii117rnalists write on average five to eight short articles a day for the site. The price for a sponsored series can rascii117n close to six figascii117res.

In their articles, the writers are not allowed to write aboascii117t the brand specifically, or any of its competitors, Ms. Martinet said. Brands that want too mascii117ch say over the content by, for example, pascii117tting their prodascii117ct in an article, will be tascii117rned down, she said.

Pete Pachal, a technology editor at Mashable who wrote the Google Glass piece in the Snapdragon series, said the writers have no contact with the series sponsors. &ldqascii117o;There&rsqascii117o;s always people with conspiracy theories,&rdqascii117o; he said, responding to a qascii117estion aboascii117t whether editorial staff shoascii117ld write articles in sponsored series. &ldqascii117o;The article isn&rsqascii117o;t even aboascii117t the brands or what their prodascii117cts are, so yoascii117&rsqascii117o;re not even entering that territory.&rdqascii117o;

Not everyone agrees. &ldqascii117o;I am aghast at this,&rdqascii117o; said Andrew Sascii117llivan, a writer and the former editor of The New Repascii117blic and blogger for The Daily Beast. Readers do not pay attention to the names of people who write articles, he said. &ldqascii117o;Yoascii117r average reader isn&rsqascii117o;t interested in that. They don&rsqascii117o;t realize they are being fed corporate propaganda.&rdqascii117o;
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