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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

opinion

Readers beware of the 'advertorial'

It’s official: print journalism is now even more dead than it was before.

The latest issue of Forbes magazine has an advertisement for insurance gracing its cover.

Years and years of struggling magazines blurring the lines between advertising and editorial content have finally reached an apex with this unabashed display. It screams, “We’re perpetually on the brink of collapse, please help.”

Forbes may be the first publication to do something quite this blatant, but other magazines are far from innocent. “Advertorial” content — advertising poorly hidden within editorial content — is rampant in your favorite magazines. Hide your kids! Hide your wife!

These “native” ads attempt to trick the reader into thinking they aren’t ads at all. And they’re pretty good at it. Until you look closely and see the villainous marker lurking in the corner of the page, camouflaged in the shadows: “Sponsored Content.”

Oh yes folks, it’s there. You may think your precious Fast Company and GQ are exceptions, but they aren’t. No one is safe.

And you’ll see them on websites, too, ?perhaps even more.

It’s the sad truth about journalism these days: ?everything could be an ad.

It’s a shame we have to scrutinize so closely everything we read, hear or watch. You never know when ?something really interesting or even funny could be an advertisement with a sinister, self-serving angle.

I know publications have to survive some way or another. It’s difficult being in print journalism these days. So if they have to resort to more advertising, then who am I to stop them?

But putting an ad on your cover? And not just an ad — a “native” ad that doesn’t even really look like an ad at first glance. Journalism should not be in the business of ?deception.

I would expect to be deceived by some industries. Tobacco? Sure. Fast food? Heck, yeah. But journalism? That’s just not acceptable.

Native advertising is not the way to go for a struggling print publication. People do not like to be deceived, so if you trick them, they’re going to stop reading your magazine. You can have all the ads you want in your magazine. But it doesn’t matter if ?nobody’s reading it. And if nobody’s reading it, you lose your sponsors.

I’ve never even taken a marketing class, and I know this. It’s common sense.

Something you figure the editor of a ?business magazine would ?understand.

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