The nice thing about native advertising is that no two people define it the same way. But that didn't stop New York Times Executive Vice President-Advertising Meredith Kopit Levien from trying to redefine it -- not as a noun, the way most people use the term, but as an adjective.

A panel featuring large publishers at OMMA Native suggests that sometimes sponsored content draws more reader engagement than regular articles. Kelly Andresen, director of ad innovations and product strategy, at the Washington Post, for example, cited an educational series the CTIA ran including text stories and videos where people spent twice as much time with the content as the average unpaid article on the Post site. She and other panelists, however, emphasized that sponsored material needs to be clearly labeled as such lest they invite a backlash from users. Publishers, which also included Yahoo, Microsoft and People magazine, are also …

That's an interesting question that's beginning to emerge, now that brands -- and brand stewards -- are getting pretty savvy about creating native advertising formats that can be compared alongside editorial content by the most important KPIs: whether people read and engage with it. At least two powerful examples of that were cited on the "The New Premium" publishers panel at OMMA Native this morning.

That's the final word I had on the "media planning" panel I just moderated at OMMA Native this morning. The reason I summed it up that way is that the consensus is that "native" media buys and executions are ones that blur the line separating the historic church and state of publishing. Actually, according to my panelists, it's one where the line actually goes away, and it's impossible to distinguish a brand's content from a publisher's content. That is now the best practice, if not the industry standard for executing native campaigns.

Why do we need to group everything—from search to content marketing--under the umbrella of “native” ? It comes down to standardization, according to Andrea Wolinetz,, managing director of connected platforms of PHD Media. Its part of the ongoing effort to establish standard formats and practices in digital advertising because the medium is held to a higher standard for reporting and performance. But it becomes especially confusing when “native” cuts across existing formats. The IAB has taken a stab at bringing more clarity to the subject with its Native Advertisng Playbook, highlighting six basic types of native ads. 

"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 …

Michael Brenner, vice president marketing and content strategy at SAP offered some sage advice to make the natives restful during his opening keynote at OMMA Native: Be the ball. Okay, so he didn't actually quote the memorable line invoked by Ty Webb, the character played by Chevy Chase in "Caddy Shack." But he did quote another well-worn line that's pretty close: "We need to be what people are interested in, instead of interrupting what people are interested in."

"You know most of your marketing sucks." So Michael Brenner, VP of Marketing and Content Strategy at SAP, informed those marketers in attendance for the OMMA Native conference on Monday morning. "Most marketing is challenged... to be nice." What about banners? Well, borrowing a line from Jay Z, Brenner said banners have "99 problems and a click ain't one." That's why we're talking about native, according to Brenner. That's why it's growing, and most marketers are looking so hopefuly at content marketing, or "storytelling," as he puts it. "The only want to be effective with native advertising is to tell …

Speaking at the Outfront Forum, Christine Merrifield president of investment, activation and operations of MediaVest USA, says she had to miss three Newfronts meetings recently. And here's the problem -- which she says might speak to a larger picture about new digital offerings -- and their maturity: None of those three upfront meetings had streaming webcasts. And then there is the rapidly growing number of newfront/upfront presentations. While the newfronts prove interesting for many industry executives, Barry Lowenthal, president of The Media Kitchen, is concerned about consumers how to make sense of all the offerings.Industry analysts have long …

Enough! The drinks and D-list celebrity appearances are great, but agencies can't handle all these darn upfronts. On that point, they all agreed during Media Magazine's Outfront Forum on Wednesday. Between the Digital NewFronts and more traditional affairs, agency heads estimated about 100 events taking place, this season -- and that's not including the countless pre-event meetings and phone calls, noted Adam Kasper, Chief Media Officer at Havas Media, North America. Going forward, "I don't think we're going to see more of these," he said. In a word, the upfront marathon has become "impractical," said Kristi Argyilan, President, North America, …