NEW YORK: True/Slant launched AdSlant Monday, a new service that allows marketers and PR pros to create advertorials for the daily news site. AdSlant already has three partners using the service, Ooma, WebTrends, and BIO, and True/Slant editor and creator Lewis Dvorkin said his Web site is actively looking for more to contribute.
“Marketers are looking for new ways to engage and interact with news audiences,” Dvorkin said. “There's been a lot of effort to find new mediums to do so, and AdSlant gives marketers a chance to self publish and get their message out.”
True/Slant launched in beta in June, and has a team of 250 contracted journalists contributing stories. The site allows journalists, academics, and experts to control their own pages on the site. Among its contributors are Miles O'Brien, former anchor at CNN; Matt Taibbi, political correspondent at Rolling Stone; and Katty Kay, correspondent for the BBC.
The idea of providing marketers a place to contribute advertorials was part of the original concept of True/Slant, and Dvorkin said the launch of AdSlant can benefit PR pros looking for an outlet to spread the word about a client they're working with or an ad campaign they're promoting. The site also allows readers to comment, providing marketers instant feedback.
“The business press today is very challenged. There are fewer people in the business press covering fewer companies and fewer stories,” he said. “We're giving marketers and PR professionals a tool to publish stories on their campaigns or projects, and their content runs next to highly credible editorial content.”
Matt Podboy, a founder and VP at Voce Communications, said he thought getting his client, phone service Ooma, onto the site would be a smart move, as he believes 2010 will produce a rise in advertorial content produced by PR firms for the Web.
“I think True/Slant is ahead of what we're going to see next year,” Podboy said. “It makes sense to present brands in an environment where brand, editorial content, and readers can coexist. Integrating this tool into our marketing strategy is important, especially considering that here you can see the engagement between the audience and the content immediately, and tweak that content accordingly. It's very fluid.”
