News organisations ‘go native’ to find new source of ad revenue

Welcome to the world of sponsored content, in which advertisers pay to have their messages integrated with editorial content on a publisher’s site.

It is one of the fastest-growing sources of revenue for the news industry – but also one of the most controversial. Although the “advertorial” -- an advert in a similar format to an editorial article -- has existed in print for decades, it is only recently that publishers have reinvented the concept for the digital age. Sponsored content is perhaps the most contentious variety of what is known as “native advertising”, forms of marketing that look the same as the editorial content of a particular website or app and blend in seamlessly with other stories.