So, this happened while I was away:
Yes, we need new sources of income in digital. But I’m deeply unconvinced that “native” advertising is the future. We’re essentially running a huge experiment to see if the old view – that compromising editorial values with paid content would erode the trust of the reader, and eventually destroy the relationship the advertising was paying to access – was accurate.
The problem for the companies doing this is that, if the old view is correct and they’ve just destroyed a relationship, it’s almost impossible to get back from there.