3 Comments

Actually Sam, I am now in agreement with you. I've just had a long, gracious, explanatory email from Simon Day, the commercial editorial director at The Spinoff about why they must run advertorial. I can see that it's a necessary evil, and as you say, much better than clickbait. I didn't recognise "(partnership)" within the story as delineating advertising from editorial content. I can see now, that that is what it is, though I would appreciate it to be marked more clearly as what it is, *advertorial*. Less spin, so to speak. But The Bulletin is still my go-to for my morning NZ news and I'm a grateful subscriber.

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Am I missing something? I thought the Spinoff was excellent independent journalism, but lately I’ve been seeing more of what I’d call advertorial —like the puff piece today on Vodafone’s guy finding work-life balance. Is this what my subscription pays for? I find the mix of actual journalism and what is thinly disguised advertising disconcerting, and undermine credibility.

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