• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, August 15, 2013

Does the embrace of native advertising by publishers necessarily lead to inferior content and shady marketing practices? The native ad specialists at Outbrain are trying to make such outcomes less likely.

In the name of quality control, the company says it rejects 50% of all the “content” submitted by marketers.

“As more and more shady behavior sprouts up in the content marketing space, it becomes increasingly important for us to stay true to our values, even if it comes at the expense of short-term revenues,” according to Outbrain CEO Yaron Galai.

To do all this rejecting, the company employs a dedicated team -- along with an anonymous editorial board -- that reviews content. Late last year, Outbrain even kicked out a number of questionable marketers from its network using BillGuard’s Merchant Reliability Index.

On Thursday, the company is expected to announce a new partnership with the transaction monitoring and resolution provider. Using BillGuard’s platform, Outbrain says it will be able to identify and remove crooked merchants from its network -- particularly those that target unsuspecting consumers with unwanted credit-card charges.

Riding a wave of interest in “native advertising,” Outbrain gives online publishers a platform for recommending content links with the hope of increasing traffic and page views.

Founded in 2006, Outbrain also promises to better monetize publishers’ content pages by leveraging recommended links to third-party content. Outbrain publishing partners include USA Today, The Daily Beast, Ziff Davis, iVillage, Slate and Univision Interactive.

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