Publishers Are Rethinking Those ‘Around the Web’ Ads - The New York Times

Tangentially, on my recommended-reading list: The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads by Tim Wu

"Usually grouped together under a label like “Promoted Stories” or “Around the Web,” these links are often advertisements dressed up to look like stories people might want to read. They have long provided much-needed revenue for publishers and given a wide range of advertisers a relatively affordable way to reach large and often premium audiences.

But now, some publishers are wondering about the effect these so-called content ads may be having on their brands and readers. This month, these ads stopped appearing on Slate. And The New Yorker, which restricted placement of such ads to its humor articles, recently removed them from its website altogether."

Publishers Are Rethinking Those ‘Around the Web’ Ads - The New York Times