Sponsored Content in 2020: Back to the Future?

Abstract

This article revisits predictions I made in 2018 regarding the future of newsroom content studios in my book Native Advertising: Advertorial Disruptions in the 21^st Century News Feed. As that book was going to press, the news industry was still optimistic that sponsored content —in particular, the native advertising produced by boutique ‘content studios’ at newsrooms around the globe — would serve as a robust alternative revenue stream for prestige publications. Over the past three years, these hopes have faded somewhat. Content studios are still around, but their limitations are becoming clear and news outlets (somewhat predictably) have set their sights on still other sources of revenue.

Keywords:

• Sponsored content
• native advertising
• content studios
• journalism
• podcasting
• digital advertising

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.