Digital news website Mashable posted a great article today on the role that content marketing is playing in the world of journalism. In the article, author Sam Slaughter of Contently writes about Onion Labs, the offshoot of the popular satirical newspaper, and how it is working with high-profile brands like Microsoft.
From Mashable: Can marketing save journalism?
The article also details how well-respected journalists are getting into the content marketing arena by serving as copywriters for brands looking to produce a new type of advertisement:
“Even brands that don’t have dedicated editorial teams have begun tapping journalists to create ‘native ads,’ in many ways indistinguishable from the journalistic content along which they appear.”
These native ads blur the line between traditional editorial content and content marketing. In short, brands are tapping the editorial expertise of journalists to produce hyper-relevant, useful content to their target audiences.
Here’s the problem: one of the major tenants of journalism is that reporters and editors are to remain unbiased, so this concept may break a few rules. As traditional journalism continues to struggle, however, it’s likely that we’ll continue to see many reporters transition over to marketing and PR copywriting, even if they don’t fully make the jump.