• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, September 24, 2004

Weather.com's decision earlier this month to start running advertorials for Scott's fertilizer--a first for that site--evidences the growing trend of online content paid for by sponsors, say online media experts.

And while the watchdogs say there's nothing inherently wrong with advertorials, they stress that publishers should clarify that the content is paid for. Without such disclaimers, they say, consumers will eventually lose confidence in the Web as a source of information.

"The public already perceives that advertisers have an influence on content," says Al Tompkins, who teaches broadcast and online journalism at The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla. The prevalence of advertorials, at least those without disclaimers, "only adds to the public skepticism that coverage is for sale," he says.

Traditional publishing associations such as the American Society of Magazine Editors issue guidelines stating that advertorials should be clearly marked as such. But Web-only publishers have yet to agree on any standards.

One reason, says Tom Regan, executive director of the Online News Association, is that it's relatively easy for magazines and newspapers to place the word "advertorial" on the same page as paid articles, because they can do so unobtrusively. It's harder to be clear--yet still low-profile--on the Web, where articles are often posted via a series of links. So far, says Regan, publishers have made advertorial policies on "an institution by institution basis."

Of course, the freewheeling, perpetual-motion culture of the Web also hinders efforts to develop uniform standards. "Part of the anarchy of being on the Web is that no one would adhere to such things even if they existed," says Tompkins.

The Web might be anarchic, but most publishers are still business people--and advertorials are increasingly common because they seem to make business sense. For one thing, online sites, unlike newspapers and magazines, aren't limited by page counts. "Publishers have a built-in insatiability for fresh content," says Scott Witt, a group director at MediaVest. Additionally, says Witt, publishers are constantly seeking new sources of revenue. Because advertorials fill a content void and produce revenue, publishers view them as elegant solutions to perpetual publishing challenges.

The Scott's advertorial on Weather.com has not yet launched, says a company spokeswoman, so it's unclear how the site plans to handle any disclaimers. Although Weather.com has no corresponding print presence, Tompkins and others say they consider it a journalistic site because it performs the traditionally journalistic tasks of collecting and analyzing information.

While Tompkins worries about the dangers of consumer confusion, Witt sees another cause for concern. "There are many, many advertorials online that are done for the sake of doing so," he said. The result? "Most advertorials," he says, "are not very good."