The history of native advertising as told by HBO's "Last Week Tonight"

As I head to the Mega-Conference in Atlanta this week (big conference for newspaper and online publishers), my goal is to learn more and understand what I already think I know a little better. That might be tougher than it sounds, given the ever changing landscape for publishing and marketing these days.

Native Advertising is a great example. It has been around for us to get taste of what it can be. In some businesses, including mine we have a baseline for revenue that we can now build on for the coming year, hoping to replicate the huge growth we all read about in various publications and websites. 

In preparation for Mega-Conference, I have received dozens of notes, calls and emails from current and potential vendors. All of them asking for a few minutes of my time to discuss possible business partnerships. The best one of all of them came from a friend of mine, Paul Camp from Content That Works in Chicago. Content That Works has been trying to get out in front of the native advertising game, and has done a good job so far.

But even Paul and Content That Works won't pretend to know all that there is or where this potential beast is going. And they don't take themselves too seriously either. Check out this roughly 10 minute history and commentary on native advertising, from HBO's show "Last Week Tonight"

http://youtu.be/E_F5GxCwizc

Happy Monday!