Corin Faife of Breaker reports that half of the crypto news sites he contacted using a fake public relations name and company agreed to publish content on their sites in return for money and not mark the stories as paid content.
Faife writes, “Of the 22 outlets who replied conclusively, 12 of them—more than half the total—were willing to publish paid content without disclosing it as such.
“This is a big claim to make, so where there was any doubt we asked for clarification in a follow-up email. Only the websites that unambiguously offered to publish native content, unlabelled, for a price are included in the total. So not included in the count are two outlets that hinted at being willing to do so under certain conditions, but did not ultimately confirm it. Add those two, and the total would be 14 out of 24, or 58 percent.
“The prices quoted for this ranged from a low of $240 to a high of $4500, which reflects the size and reach of the outlets we investigated. The chart below gives a breakdown—and you might see some names that you recognize.”
Read more here.
