• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, May 20, 2014

In the interest of advertising, a growing number of marketers and new media execs think publishers have all but given up trying to protect their editorial independence. Publishers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal “used to be hallowed ground,” said Ranvir Guiral, co-founder of Chute, a social photo-aggregation service. Now, they and other elite publications are loosely “playing with business models,” in Guiral’s words -- and essentially giving brands free reign. As such, “It’s a great time to be a brand,” he said. Publishers’ newfound looseness remains unique to the Web, noted Heather Bergstein, Director of Corporate Digital Marketing & Media for The Estee Lauder Companies. “Digital is really a lot more open,” she said on Tuesday. The sentiments echoed those made on Monday during the OMMA Native conference. “It’s official: [the traditional divide between] church and state is dead,” Joe Mandese, editor-in-chief at MediaPost, told OMMA Native attendees. 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.”