Washington Post to Try Sponsored Posts

Digiday reporting:
There was a time when putting ads on the front page of newspapers was considered risque. Those days are over. The Washington Post became the latest publisher to quit worrying and learn to love sponsored content.
WaPo tomorrow plans to launch “BrandConnect” that will let marketers create content throughout the WaPo site and on its homepage. It’s kind of like Forbes’ BrandVoice, which lets brands post on the Forbes platform. CTIA, the wireless trade association, is the inaugural advertiser and will create content through blog posts, videos and infographics, according to a rep. The Post did not provide specifics on exact nature of the content or how long it would run.
As a sign of how important it views this, the Post is giving the sponsored content prime real estate along the left rail of its homepage.
Sponsored content, often operating under the guise of “native” advertising, has proven a controversial proposition at some publishers. The Atlantic unleashed a furor when it ran a sponsored post by Scientology. BuzzFeed has been criticized because some of its sponsored content seems indistinguishable from editorial. What’s more, that’s exactly the point at some level.
It isn’t exactly a leap. Newspapers frequently run special advertorial sections from advertisers. Those have long been accepted, yet the updated version of advertorial from the Web is at times held to higher standards.
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