For those not working in the marketing or advertising industry, native advertising is a tricky, morally ambiguous if not outright ethically dubious proposition. The practice, in which “online advertising … matches the form and function of the platform on which it appears,” blurs if not outright obliterates the line between advertising and editorial. This is a line that the news industry has always liked to claim is sacrosanct, allowing them to claim the credibility to do their jobs.
But native advertising also asks another, deeper question: What about when it’s good? What does it mean when native advertising leads to good, innovative journalism?
