Journalists are increasingly playing a role in creating branded content

By Tracie Powell

When it comes to blurring the lines between advertising and news content, some journalists are leading the way.

In the past, news organizations worked extra hard to keep their news and advertising departments separate. But the digital age, and the increasing importance of native advertising to news gatherers’ bottom line, is changing all of that. Mashable’s Chief Strategy Officer, Adam Ostrow, said earlier this week that reporters and editors at his company create advertising content, which helps them tell “deeper” stories.

“What we try to do at Mashable is to marry the themes, ideas, and topics that are relevant to brands with editorial content that isn’t promoting the brand, talking about their products, but aligns with the themes that they’re interested in,” Ostrow said at workshop on native advertising hosted by the Federal Trade Commission earlier this week.

Read the rest of the story in the Columbia Journalism Review here.