An advertorial is basically an article in the shape of editorialized content. The word "advertisements" is a combination of the words "advertiser" and "print." The source of this word is unknown, however, Merriam-Webster date the birth of the term to 1946.
These articles are not really intended for publication, but rather for distribution by online means and with certain restrictions. For instance, most articles found in newspapers are not advertorials, because they are meant for publication. In contrast, these articles are considered as press releases, or marketing press releases, in some instances. Advertorials were made for special occasions, such as a sale of a particular item on a limited-edition basis. The New York Times has developed its own style of advertorials, such as a guide to "10 things that will make you look smart and attractive."
Sometimes, however, the advertorial is written for a specific product or service instead of a general audience. Examples are pieces written for beauty tips, a list of the best restaurants in a certain city, or a description of a type of investment. These pieces of advertorial content can be quite lengthy and are typically geared towards a single reader. They are not usually found in newspapers or magazines, as they are more often focused on one company. In recent years, however, many people have become accustomed to online reading, which does not require the reader to travel far from their computer. Many people prefer to read an article online than reading it in a newspaper or magazine, which makes the internet a perfect medium for advertorials.
There are three main groups of people who read ads: the advertiser, the publisher, and the reader. The advertiser is the person who produce the ad, pays the editorial writer, and is the person who read both the advertiser's and the editorial writer's content. Publishers are the people who own the rights to the advertising. When they want to advertise, they go to a publishing house to get permission to place the ad. When the ad is used, they pay the person who wrote it a fee. Finally, the reader is the person who reads the article, receives the written information, and is the one who actually reacts to the advertising.
A recent example of this hybrid model is the sponsored post, which was previously used in newspapers but has recently been introduced on the major social media platforms. A sponsored post is a sponsored editorial piece, where the advertiser or the publisher agrees to display a commercial or link in an article in exchange for having their business name appear as a byline or resource box. The byline links to the advertiser's or the publisher's website to the advertiser or the publisher's website. This arrangement offers advertisers a way to reach a targeted audience, while the reader gets quality content and the convenience of engaging with online conversations.
This practice has been around for decades but wasn't always popular with newspapers. In the past, newspapers did not employ the model of paying for advertising space unless the piece was a stand-alone story. This meant that newspapers often chose not to publish advertorials, opting instead for news stories or features that provided additional information, and not a sales pitch. This limited the types of pieces that newspapers published and limited the amount of revenue they could realize from their editorial departments. But recently, a new trend has emerged for newspapers in the form of advertisement revenue sharing: they are now looking to publish more editorial content, and share the revenue generated through these articles with their advertisers.
It is important to note that the change does not apply to all types of adverts. Magazines, for example, continue to publish advertorial content, and do not share revenue with advertisers. Similarly, television stations still allow advertorials to be aired, but only if the content provided is purely informational. It should be noted that this change is likely to affect the way that media businesses think about their revenue from adverts. While it is unlikely that the amount of revenue generated from such content will decline, the increasing number of publications that do not publish advertorial content is likely to change the model.
This new model is somewhat different from native advertising, in that the reader is not made aware of the revenue generated by the advertorial, and there is no indication that the publisher will receive any compensation from the advertiser. As such many newspapers have adopted an open policy towards advertorials, accepting them as a part of the news report. However, some newspapers are increasingly placing ads on their editorial pages, in order to earn additional revenue. The combination of the changes described here, and the increasing demand from readers for informative content, have led to the rise of a new class of native advertising models, such as those that take the form of blog posts, which are also generally seen as providing a useful service to the reader in addition to advertising.