Concerns about Forbes' blog strategy

Nat Ives of Advertising Age takes a look Thursday at the blogging strategy at Forbes, which allows companies such as software maker SAP to control content on their blogs, and finds some concerns.

Ives writes, “An SAP banner ad appears below the AdVoice flag. And, of course, the standard author bio on the right describes ‘the world’s leading provider of business software,’ not a Forbes staffer.

“But the blog post is otherwise presented exactly as if it were an editorial post offering objective business news or analysis. And that’s drawing criticism in at least a couple quarters.

“One person who pointed SAP’s Forbes blog out on Twitter said, for example, ‘Um, no, that’s not different enough from editorial blogs.’

“The American Society of Magazine Editors doesn’t like it either. ‘Advertiser-supplied content, whether in print or online, should not look like editorial content,’ said society CEO Sid Holt. ‘This is a bedrock principle, clearly stated in the ASME Guidelines for Editors and Publishers. ASME’s new Best Practices for Digital Media will underscore the point.'”

Read more here.