Why It Matters: Just a reminder of why the payola issue is relevant to all of us. Over the years, I have heard many PR people make the case that editorial coverage is more credible (three times more credible is a claim I’ve heard more than once) than advertising. That’s the biggest reason for companies to invest in PR over other message delivery systems.

But this study, which I reported in the newsletter in December, suggests that almost two-thirds of consumers assume that advertisers pay for product mentions in the editorial pages of magazines. So for two thirds of consumers, PR is no more credible than advertising.
Our value as an industry is dependent upon credibility. How much value have we lost over the last year?