Among the many lessons I learned while working for the New York Times was that its readers know what they like -- and what they don't. For instance, there's a significant number who don't like advertisements and would be thrilled if the paper became some sort of noncommercial public trust, free from the concerns of turning a profit. Their disdain for being targeted by marketers was a big reason the Times has had to devise approaches to online ads that are different from what most other publishers do. That's why the Times' native advertising is far less likely to look like editorial content; sponsored posts that bear labels such as "Promoted" and "Around the Web" on other news websites are described plainly as "From Our Advertisers" on nytimes.com.
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