• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, May 19, 2014

“It’s official: [the traditional divide between] church and state is dead,” Joe Mandese, editor-in-chief at MediaPost, told attendees of the OMMA Native conference on Monday. The half-humerous declaration came in response to comments from a panel of media planners, who more or less made the same point. Andrea Wolinetz, Managing Director of Connected Platforms at PHD Media, said consumers don’t really care anymore about who’s producing content on a media channel (say, NYTimes.com) so long as “what’s in there is true… and it’s interesting … and it’s good content.” George Janson, Managing Partner and Director of Print at GroupM, suggested that an ad shouldn’t even be considered native unless it can live on a Website without the words, "sponsored by…" Meanwhile, no native ad conference would be complete without a lively debate about the definition of native. “Native just means that the ad fits really well with the site it’s on,” according to Wolinetz.