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Game Site Space For $$
Wagner James Au writes "Thought y'all would be interested in part two of my 'Preview Ho' series for Kotaku -- in it, a media buyer tells me how Gamespot and Gamespy sells editorial space on their sites to big publishers for thousands of dollars. In other words, the games you see on the front pages of those sites are often there because publishers paid for that privilege. In their defense, Gamespy's Vice President of Content Publishing tells me the practice is 'pretty common both in print and online'." Nothing surprising here, but it's interesting to see it laid out like this.
Thought y'all would be interested in part two of my 'Preview Ho' series for Kotaku
No, I'm not.
Trolling is a art,
Just because whoring out editorial space is 'pretty common both in print and online' doesn't excerpt the editors from being ethically corrupt as journalists. When you sell a publication's editorial space, be it online, magazine or whatever, it's no longer editorial. It's advertorial and as such, should be clearly marked, much like those "special advertising sections" you see in Time and other mags. There's no real recourse or anything other than consumers and journalistic peers calling other publications out and holding them responsible, but really...journalism, whether you're covering world affairs or the mating habits of squirrels is a profession and as such, has ideals, ethics and rules off conduct. It's just depressing.
Except the vendor section with AMD specifically says "Special Advertising Section". It makes clear to the reader that the section is paid for and they can read through with that bias in mind. On the other hand, I have never seen one of those front page game articles mention that the game maker paid to have it highlighted. When I see a game site put big headlines up for a game I would assume that they really think highly of the game and want to inform their readers.