Walking the Line on Blogging Ethics

Ed Shull says his company has found a way for bloggers to get paid for writing about advertisers without undermining their integrity. Gelf isn't so sure the results meet that ideal.

Hadley Robinson

Several companies are paying bloggers to write posts on behalf of advertisers. Are some more ethical than others in this controversial practice of paying for play? Blogitive claims it is, because it doesn't force bloggers to put a positive spin on the advertisers' wares. Yet Gelf's inquiries suggest that most do, anyway, because it's easier to regurgitate a press release than to write something original and critical.