After Scientology Debacle, The Atlantic Tightens Native Ad Guidelines

January 31, 2013

A little over two weeks after The Atlantic got egg on its face over a sponsored Web post by the Church of Scientology, the media brand has issued new guidelines for so-called native advertising. They're live on the brand's site now.

The issue—according to the outraged digerati but also by the Atlantic's own admission—was that the Atlantic violated the spirit of native advertising by giving a platform to a controversial institution that didn’t jibe with its intellectual tradition. Then it made things worse by censoring some of the negative reaction that filled up the comments stream....