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In today's online edition I see that they're very busy blowing their own horn, which is fair enough I guess. I know that I find the NZ Herald's website to be the best of all the local news sites and have no doubt that many others do also.

However, you'll recall that in a column published a few weeks ago, I highlighted what I thought was a dangerous instance of advertorial content produced by the Herald.

Well I'll be blowed if they haven't done it again with this piece in today's edition.

Hands up all those who consider this item to be a bonafide news story worthy of inclusion in the Herald's news section?

Hands up the rest of you who think it's just another piece of advertorial designed to promote Telecom in a somewhat unsubtle manner?

Clearly nobody at the Herald is prepared to put their name on a by-line to be associated with this piece so they're very much aware that it crosses the line between objective reporting and advertorial.

Now have your say Got something to say about today's column, or want to see what others think?  Visit The Forums While you're here, why not visit the Aardvark Hall of Shame and perhaps make your own nomination.

Let me repeat that I do like the NZ Herald. With the addition of Paul Brislen to their team of already very competent IT reporters, the Herald does some really good work in delivering technology news.

But then they effectively chip away at the credibility of the work done by that team through the repeated sneaky insertion of blatant advertorial material.

And have you noticed that it's Telecom who always seem to be the company who benefits from this advertorial coverage?

We all know that Telecom is a huge advertiser who probably spend massive amounts of money every year with The Herald, but does that really entitle them to back-door promotions such as the stuff we're beginning to see on the Herald's news pages?

There's actually *nothing* wrong with advertorial content, so long as it's clearly labeled "Advertorial and a very strong distinction is made between this kind of "Telecom are important customers so we're saying nice things about them" material and the honest, objective reporting that the Herald also does.

While you and I might be alert enough to spot the difference for ourselves, there are many people out there who are not so clever and who will be unable to distinguish advertorial from editorial -- or perhaps don't even know there is a difference.

I'm always reluctant to criticise someone in the same game as myself but in this case I think the Herald needs to be a little more honest about what constitutes news and what constitutes advertising.

I would wager good money that if those responsible for inserting this dross were to ask their reporters how they felt about it, they'd get some pretty negative responses. It's decidedly unfair of management to devalue the work of those journalists by tainting it with undeclared advertorial.

But let's hear from Aardvark readers. Do you think advertorial content should be clearly labeled as such or is it okay to rely on the reader making the distinction?

Have your say on today's column

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