Sharper lines between news, advertising

GlaxoSmithKline got a lot of attention in last Sunday's N&O. On the front page was a story, headlined "GSK scientist pursues Alzheimer's treatment," that featured the big Triangle pharmaceutical company's efforts to produce a breakthrough drug to treat or prevent the disease.

On the front of the Classified section was another story titled "It takes a vast team to introduce a new drug." The story focused on the GSK drug Valtrex, used to treat genital herpes and other afflictions.

Even though one GSK story was in the news section and the other in advertising, their conjunction caught the attention of some readers.

"I was just blown away, as a consumer advocate, by the GlaxoSmithKline one-two punch," said Adam Searing, a health care advocate with the N.C. Justice Center. "The first was the real puff piece about an Alzheimer's treatment that's two or three years away. Then I opened the Sunday Classified and it seems like Glaxo has bought half the classified section, and it's not even identified as advertising. I don't think it serves your high standards to allow someone like Glaxo to have such an influence on the newspaper."

After checking with the news and advertising departments, I was able to assure Searing that the same-day appearance of the two articles was coincidental and that neither department knew what the other was doing. Moreover, the Classified story was not an ad purchased by GSK; in fact, News & Observer managers were disappointed that the company would not buy a help-wanted ad in the section, which focused on health and science.

(We won't debate here the "puff piece" assessment; suffice it to say that Searing, as a consumer activist, is no fan of big drug companies.)

Still, the Classified health care section had some ethical fishhooks, and it points to some knotty concerns about the line between advertising and news in a newspaper. As Searing pointed out, nowhere was the section's GSK story labeled as an advertising product. There was no byline to tell readers where it came from. Was it Glaxo? (No, it was a free-lancer hired by the advertising department.)

The story was printed in the same typeface as N&O news stories. And other stories in the health care section came from regular N&O news services -- The Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg News, Associated Press.

Except for the bold "Classified" logo on the section front, the reader could be forgiven for mistaking Sunday's Classified section for a regular news section. Indeed, it would take a fairly savvy reader to distinguish the difference.

N&O publisher Orage Quarles III said, "The section should have clearly stated 'Advertising' and a different typeface should have been used."

That section was an aberration, the advertising folks hasten to tell us. The N&O each year publishes a health care careers package in a separate tabloid section but chose this time to graft it onto the regular Sunday classifieds, to allow later deadlines.

Tim Parrish, director of Classified sales and product development, acknowledged the problems with Sunday's section. He has scheduled a meeting this week with other advertising and news managers to discuss how to sharpen the line between advertising and news content. He confesses that he's a little unsure himself: "Did we cross the line or didn't we cross the line? And what line did we cross?" he asked. "Were the articles too news-related, versus, say, a story on how to write a career plan?"

Lois Boynton, who teaches ethics at the UNC School of Journalism, says newspapers should employ cues to readers to help them distinguish between advertising and news content. Advertising sections with "advertorial" copy should be clearly labeled as advertising. She recommended using devices such as distinct typefaces and even reader notices on the front of advertising sections. "The more transparent you can be, the better," said Boynton, who said she had been surprised by the Classified GSK story. "I don't think the line between advertising and editorial is as clear in your readers' minds as it is in your offices."