Feature request: Sponsored content

I’d love a feature that allows sponsored content/advertorials to blend with the regular content while it is still very clear to the reader that it is indeed sponsored content. The feature request would be suitable for both Newspaper and Newsmag (which are both great themes).

The feature could include:

• One or several areas of the content page shows that it is sponsored content (example from The Atlantic and another from The New York Times)
• A visual difference when viewed in a content feed (example from Buzzfeed)
• A custom field for the content which contains an image/logo (for the sponsor), a description and a link.
• Content feed priority: A set priority area within the content feed. Alternatively it could work as a content box in the visual plugin.
• Visibility timer: A setting which automatically unpublishes content after a set amount of time

Hi Emil,

Thanks for your reply, for adding it on the list and for the link to the plugin 🙂

I’m not sure what you mean with the user roles – does it relate to something I wrote?

Funnily enough this came up here the other day as well. A plugin to do this kind of thing would be awesome from TagDiv, or a paid add-on option for the themes (hint!). I’d be willing to pay $25 for an “add-on” to the Newsmag theme for this, which is cheapo I know, but if you had a lot of folks buy it, well, it’s worth it. 🙂

Right now, it seems the best way to do this might be:

a) custom post template; edit one of the existing to add some “sponsored post” elements to page; change header link to header-sponsored.php
b) clone header.php and remove the default header ad box elements
c) create custom sidebar which doesn’t have default ad units
d) not sure how to set an expiration date; our local CMS (house built, not WP) has this function, I see couple of plugins for this out there, one which stopped working with latest WP update — but seems like there should be function for this (WP still evolving as proper CMS, which is why my system built in 2005, updated 2007, can do it, and WP still does not by default .. duh). Probably needs a cron job from server.
e) likely need a custom category which can be excluded from things like Google News sitemap, possibly main sitemap, but still feed into RSS streams
f) likely a custom “bug” added to end of the excerpt based on the custom category lookup to identify SPONSORED CONTENT clearly in excerpt

We’re looking to do something like this with possibly a 30,60,90 day expiration window for “sponsored content.”

Feedback from anybody who has actually implemented something like this would be major groovy bitchin’ kewl, as we say here in California 😉

• This reply was modified 10 years by simchris.

I would buy this plugin also. Or happily use it if it was integrated into the theme.

We currently have a few workarounds that help with this within Newspaper – but they aren’t perfect.

User/Author Account for “Sponsored Content” – So wherever the author’s name normally appears, including some slots on the home page, “Sponsored Content” appears. The Admin has to manually change the author from the original poster and assign it to Sponsored Content. This also allows the inclusion of a disclaimer in the Author Box at the bottom of the page. You can see it in this screen grab in the main featured image for the Oktoberfest story:

Sponsored Content Category – Our sponsored content mingles with other categories, and many items overlap across multiple categories. All paid stories are placed in all relevant categories, including “Sponsored Content.” This places a Category label at the top of the page. We keep it black so it stands out next to the multi-colored other options.

Post Expirator – We use this plug in to relocate stories after their run is over. We leave all stories up permanently, because even some out of date stories bring in a lot of traffic. However, we use this to recategorize them and move them away from visibility on the site. You could use it to archive or otherwise turn off an active story at a set time. This can be scheduled at the time the post is created.

All that said, we’d still love something that makes it more explicit/clear on all sponsored images, as shown in Loiborg’s example links in the original post.

Interested as well in something like this!

I’m looking for such a feature as well. 1,5 years have passed, can you please give an update on when this will be implemented?

Hi Bogdan, thanks for your reply! Where can I find the suggestion list to up-vote things? I mean, in order to let some needs grow in popularity, there must be some kind of a list where users can vote, correct? Sorry, but unfortunately I have the feeling that the gap, between what publishers need and what Tagdiv does, is growing.