Online publications shifting to being marketing-driven?

A not so subtle shift is taking place in online publications that is worth noting and worth watching. Here's a link to a podcast that discusses this very issue, "Journalism and Marketing." In the old days, maybe two or three years ago, the ratio between edit staff and marketing staff was easily five to one in favor of editorial. Probably higher at many publications. But as pubs like InfoWorld try to get their on

A not so subtle shift is taking place in online publications that is worth noting and worth watching.

Here's a link to a podcast that discusses this very issue, "Journalism and Marketing." In the old days, maybe two or three years ago, the ratio between edit staff and marketing staff was easily five to one in favor of editorial. Probably higher at many publications.

But as pubs like InfoWorld try to get their online sea legs, mainly to discover what readers want, a dramatic shift in new hires is taking place.

After a round of calls to numerous pubs, I see the story is the same everywhere. The shift away from editorial staff to marketing staff is happening across all Internet publications.

This is greatly facilitated by the ability to put up user-generated and even vendor-generated content.

One editor who dare not be named told me "vendors want more custom content."

"What do you mean by custom content?" I asked. "Advertorial," was his response.

The repercussions of this are still hard to gauge. But one reporter I spoke with put it best when he said, "It will take longer to find the truth."

In other words, there is so much marketing influence out there, and it is getting so strong, it will take more digging and more surfing the Web to separate fact from fiction.

Happy hunting.