Wired using reporters to produce sponsored content

Lucia Moses of Adweek reports that Wired magazine is officially unveiling a new unit called Amplifi whose mandate is to create content for brands that’s highly tailored to the Wired reader while labeled as promotional.

Moses writes, “Wired has done native, or custom, content for a while; already, an estimated 30 percent of its ad revenue has native as a component. With Amplifi, though, Wired is now formalizing the process by unifying its existing content creation functions under one unit. At the heart of the operation is a vetted roster of writers, filmmakers and others. Some have even worked for Wired editorial in the past, but they’re not current contributors, so as to avoid any journalistic conflicts of interest.

“Amplifi can work as a full-service shop, Wired vp, publisher Howard Mittman said.

“‘Clients … want to be able to tell a story that resonates deeply inside our community,’ he said. ‘We tried to find writers we thought had institutional knowledge of what Wired was about but could help tell brand stories.’

“In screening potential contributors, Wired looked for people with a strong social media footprint so that if the client wishes, the contributor could share the content across their social network for added exposure, Mittman added.”

Read more here.