Storytelling Ads May Be Journalismâs New Peril
McCambley
âI completely understand the value of native advertising â Mr. McCambley said  âbut there are a number of publishers who are allowing P.R. firms and advertising agencies direct access to their content management systems and allowing them to publish directly to the site. I think that is a huge mistake.
âYou are gambling with the contract you have with your readers â  Mr. McCambley  said. âHow do I know who made the content I am looking at and what the value of the information is?â
Once inside  you find out that  Mr. McCambley  is not some crabby editorial type putting the old gimlet eye on the necessary  but distasteful evil of advertising. All he ever wanted to do was make good content  and the banner ad is not  Mr. McCambley âs only credential: The Wonderfactory has designed Web sites for National Geographic  Martha Stewart  Coca-Cola and The Huffington Post.
âWe were proud of that ad â said Mr. McCambley. âBut everything starts out good until we end up making it bad.â
Mr. McCambley is doing his own share of work on native advertising  but said âit has to stand on its own as good journalism. Bad native advertising is destructive for the publishers that host it.â
âI completely understand the value of native advertising â  [TGT]  said  âbut there are a number of publishers who are allowing P.R. firms and advertising agencies direct access to their content management systems and allowing them to publish directly to the site. I think that is a huge mistake.
âYou are gambling with the contract you have with your readers â   [TGT] said. âHow do I know who made the content I am looking at and what the value of the information is?â
Once inside  you find out that   [TGT] is not some crabby editorial type putting the old gimlet eye on the necessary  but distasteful evil of advertising. All he ever wanted to do was make good content  and the banner ad is not  Mr. McCambley âs only credential: The Wonderfactory has designed Web sites for National Geographic  Martha Stewart  Coca-Cola and The Huffington Post.
âWe were proud of that ad â said  [TGT] . âBut everything starts out good until we end up making it bad.â
 [TGT]  is doing  [TGT]  own share of work on native advertising  but said âit has to stand on its own as good journalism. Bad native advertising is destructive for the publishers that host it.â