Study Reveals Payola in Online Tech Coverage

Technology news site DailyTech has published the results of its extensive three-month investigation examining the prevalence in pay-to-play content among the online tech coverage industry. With its reporters posing as representatives for fictitious advertisers, DailyTech attempted to secure favorable or more in-depth coverage at 35 leading tech sites in exchange for the promise of more money spent on ad placement. Of the 35 sites, seven accepted arrangements influencing editorial decisions, while 23 refused. Unsurprisingly, sites employing independent, non-editorial sales teams universally refused such offers, while the sites which agreed to participate make use of sales teams that do editorial work. Sites more than eight years of age as well as sites less than three years of age all refused editorial offers. Similarly, sites which place in the top 20% of tech sites by traffic ranking as well as sites in the bottom 20% refused offers. In both cases, sites found to accept payola arrangements were in the middle range of experience and overall influence. None of the sites contacted by DailyTech were willing to promise positive reviews in exchange for advertising, but some promised prioritized content or more in-depth coverage. Three publications offered to have editors pose as anonymous shills for advertisers' products on the sites' online forums. "The people who do sponsor the site, who advertise and keep good relationships with us, they will get priority on reviews," said an editor at one unnamed publication. "So if we get a motherboard in from you guys and one from company X, and you advertise and company X does not, we'll review your product first or more in-depth or at the launch time, which ever would get the most exposure. It doesn't really affect the content of the review exactly, but it definitely affects whether or not we'll spend the extra time with it." "Yeah, that's fine, that's fine," responded one unidentified editor when asked by a DailyTech reporter if more money spent on ad sales could guarantee more articles on the fictitious company's product. "Also let me know about the $1,500-$3,000 per site as that money does go a long way for us!" gushed an editor of another unnamed site. Few targeted sites were named, though The Tech Report and Sudhian were listed as examples of sites that refused payola. "We have a real strong policy at The Tech Report of what we like to call separation of church and state, where essentially the editorial content is separate from the marketing and the advertising," said The Tech Report's Adam Eiberger, reflecting the attitude of many online publications. Sudhian owner Jason Schneider noted that the prevalence of online payola in the tech industry has lessened. While DailyTech's study concerned only the tech coverage arena, a similar progression has been seen in the online gaming coverage world, with such offers having been more common several years ago but having decreased in frequency on the whole.