Published SourceCutting / Usage Record

Contently Native Advertising Explainer Shows How Sponsored Content Blurred The Line Between Articles And Ads

This archived screenshot preserves Contently’s explainer “What is Native Advertising? Is it Article or Ad?”, a guide to the rise of sponsored content designed to look and feel like editorial material. The item is significant because native advertising sits at the heart of the wider BuzzFeed/CEN evidence chain: BuzzFeed built much of its commercial model around branded and sponsored content while presenting itself as a newsroom exposing misleading or low-quality journalism elsewhere. The screenshot matters because it helps explain the wider media environment in which editorial, advertising, activism and commercial influence became increasingly difficult for readers to separate. Read alongside the ASA ruling on BuzzFeed advertorial labelling, the deleted advertiser-critical posts and the wider BuzzFeed business-model material, this item helps document why native advertising was not a side issue, but part of the structural problem that allowed media organisations to criticise others for misleading audiences while their own commercial content risked doing the same thing in a more polished form.

Source

Part of Central European News & Mike Leidig v BuzzFeed (US Second Circuit Libel Case) – Archived Web Screenshots

Europe Media newsX CIC Published 3 May 2026 at 13:59 Source: 16 July 2016

Tags

Contentlynative advertisingsponsored contentadvertorialsbranded contentBuzzFeedBuzzFeed business modeleditorial advertising boundarymedia ethicsreader transparencycommercial influenceadvertising disclosuredigital publishingonline mediaCENMike Leidigsource evidencearchived web screenshotlibel case evidence

Rights & Licensing

Reference / Usage Record Only

Credit: newsX

These materials consist of screenshots of third-party web content preserved for evidential and archival purposes. They are provided for reference, research, and documentation only. No rights are granted to reuse or republish the underlying content, which may be subject to third-party copyright and other legal protections.

This is a usage record. It shows where material appeared or how it was used, rather than being an original source document itself. Usage records support tracking of publication history, attribution, republication, syndication and proof of use.

File SCREEN - What is Native Advertising_ Is it Article or Ad_ - [contently.com].pdf · 1.9 MB Download

This material was submitted by a member. Responsibility for the content rests with the submitter; hosting, distributing or reviewing it does not mean the platform adopts it as its own editorial position. Platform notice · File a complaint