Advertorial’s new phase a gloomy portent for newspapers’ credibility

Who gains when the wall between ads and content crumbles to dust?

Several weeks ago I received a presentation from a major Canadian newspaper publisher titled, New Approach to Media Relations for PR Consultants. The presenter outlined a new process available for PR folks pitching their clients’ work.

Though I couldn’t attend, I obtained a copy of the deck and got a thorough debriefing from the people who were in the room. I’m glad I did, as what I learned horrified me.

I waited for a while before writing this post, as I let the implications of what I learned sink in and decide whether I was overreacting. I found myself back where I started, though—in a state of something approaching despair about the state of the mainstream media and what it means for public relations as we know it.

The bottom line: The newspaper publisher was pitching us the promise of editorial coverage paired with advertising.

Quoting the presentation: “We can help your clients marry their PR message with their Advertising message to strengthen their brand.”

The old media-relations process

You can simplify the process to three steps (this is dramatically oversimplified, but it covers the basics):

The emerging process