Tim Windsor, in his Zero Percent Idle blog, has a look at the ethical issue involving a blogger who wrote a story about his shopping experience. The difference in this case: he was "paid" to write the piece by K-Mart, which gave him a $500 gift card, and his story was largely about how the store isn't the horrible place you might think.
The issue in this instance is the new line that seems inevitable as more writers/journalists are also their sale chiefs/publishers in the digital age. Where traditional media shield their newsrooms from such story-for-an-ad practices, is it becoming harder to do in the new media environment? And if it's harder to do, what to do about it?
Windsor declares the best approach is to declare the conflict. I'd be interested in what others feel.
