NEWSLETTER #94/ December 10, 2017
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PAYOLA IN ONLINE PUBLISHING
Writers for significant online publications like Forbes, Huffpost, Mashable, Inc, Business Insider, and Entrepreneur, are accepting bribes for favorable mentions and links. This is the thrust of a story in The Outline that details how agencies "blur traditional lines between advertising and public relations, quietly pay off journalists to promote their clients ..."
Of course, the publications in question assert that they absolutely forbid such practices. But like Google and Facebook's "zero tolerance" policy for hate-filled, racist, violent, or fake content, the "policy" is more PR bullshit than anything real.
According to The Outline "...a contributor to Fast Company and other outlets...described how he had inserted references to a well-known startup...on behalf of a marketing agency he declined to name."
"An unpaid contributor to the Huffington Post ...said that he has included sponsored references to brands in his articles for years...the writer also described specific brands he’d written about on behalf of one of the agencies, which ranged from a popular ride-hailing app, to a publicly-traded site for booking flights and hotels, to a large American cell phone service provider...'This is a classic example of payola,' he said"
According to Mumbrella Asia, Forbes has pulled articles by a contributing writer named Chris Chong who just happens to be founder of a "press release automation tool" (god help us.) Forbes reportedly published favorable articles about four of Chong's clients written by Chong. Explaining this sordid practice, Forbes used the Google-Facebook defense -- given the volume of stuff we publish, we can't possibly...blah blah blah.
When the author of the article in The Outline contacted Chong about his alleged wrongdoings, what he got in return was an offer of more payola... “Is there any way we can set up a partnership together to distribute content? he asked...Happy to explore remuneration.”
It seems that Facebook ethics -- the ethics of arrogant pricks who believe they are smarter than everyone else and can't be bothered with traditional standards of behavior -- have enveloped the tech and online media industries. We have more than enough evidence of how Uber flirts with criminality; how fraud is endemic in online advertising; how kickbacks and other corrupt practices are "pervasive" in media agency operations; how Facebook recently "discovered" more fake accounts than there are adults in the US.
Anyone who is surprised by corruption in online "journalism" should not be. We have once-honorable publishers like The New York Times and Condé Nast who have developed whole studios to create "native advertising" -- a fancy term for advertising masquerading as news.
Online advertising is a scourge that corrupts everything it touches.
Rest Of Online Ad Industry Evaporating
GroupM (the world's largest advertising media company, owned by WPP) says that Google and Facebook will account for 84% of online media ad spending in 2017.
If that doesn't scare you, they will account for 186% of digital ad growth. In other words, the rest of the online ad industry is evaporating. Absent Goobook, online advertising is in free fall and publishers are being forced to play ball with the duopoly or die.
Who's Gonna Pay?
The GDPR has the online ad industry in a heavyweight arm-wrestling match over who's responsible for the inevitable huge fines (up to 4% of annual sales) that are going to be levied to non-compliant advertisers.
Clients are going to want indemnification from agencies; agencies are going to be demanding indemnification from publishers; publishers will be asking indemnification from big suppliers; big suppliers will be requiring indemnification from smaller suppliers within the impossibly convoluted ad tech ecosystem. We're going to witness a festival of finger pointing like we've never seen as a mountain of lawsuits are likely to accompany any attempt by the EU to enforce its regulations.
Lunch Update
Had the pleasure of lunching with the great Tom (Marketoonist) Fishburne last week.
Tom's new book, Your Ad Ignored Here, is a gem. If you work in advertising or marketing you'll find everyone you know in Tom's cartoons.
(Note to Tom: Just make the check out to "Payola")
Holiday Gift Ideas For The Whole Family!
Gratifying to see Marketers Are From Mars... ("likely the funniest marketing book ever" said an Amazon reviewer) climbing the charts again. I suspect it's all due to the new version available in Hungarian.
What a great Christmas gift a two-pack of "Mars" and "BadMen" would make. Just sayin'...
