Campaign Outsider

From our Over to the Dark Side desk

New York Observer reporter Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke chronicles the increasing migration of journalists to the stealth marketing industry:

Journalists Take Refuge in the World of Branded Content

Until December, Melissa Lafsky Wall was the editor of Newsweek’s iPad edition, a job she landed on the strength of bylines inThe New York Times, Salon, Wired and The Christian Science Monitor, as well as editing stints at the Huffington Post and the Freakonomics blog.

But as Newsweek was laying off staffers leading up to the death of its print edition, Ms. Lafsky Wall decided to go in an altogether new direction: since January, she has been the director of content at HowAboutWe, a startup dating site with a blog about courting, relationships and romance.

The articles Ms. Lafsky Wall produces are indistinguishable from those on brainier women’s blogs. Recent titles include “Millennial Women Rejoice: It’s Our Hookup Culture, Too,” “The Adventures of Dating in Davos” and “Beware the Rom Com Curse, Says Science.” They’re well-reported and well-written, helped by the fact that HowAboutWe pays at the high end of web writing rates.

But hindered by the fact they’re not actually journalism.

Then again, that’s the whole point, isn’t it . . .

Read the rest at Sneak Adtack.