Categories: OLD Media Moves

Another paper sells sponsorship to biz column

The Spokane Spokesman-Review announced Thursday that a local financial institution will sponsor a column in its business section.

It joins the Philadelphia Inquirer, which announced earlier this year that a bank there would sponsor a business news column.

An item on the Daily Briefing blog run by the newspaper stated, “Melodie Little‘s “Here’s The Dirt” column will be sponsored by Sterling Savings and Loan.

“‘Are we monetizing content now?’ asked business editor Alison Boggs. Even though this sponsorship is for a column and not a business or news story, sponsorship and money make up one big congealed scary thought for journalists, because it creates a conflict of interest when it comes to providing news coverage on a company that happens to give money.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.