The following is a statement from the Press Council summarising its decision in a complaint over Outbrain raised by Tom Frewen.

The Press Council has issued a rebuke over the publication of sponsored content on Stuff and nzherald.co.nz that masquerades as news stories, noting that this practice is a breach of the professional standards expected of a trusted media and that some of the 'stories' published are simply inaccurate.

The Press Council has undertaken consideration of this complaint on the basis that if material is being published in a way that makes it look as if it is genuine news it should, at least, be held to the same standards as news content.

The Council is also alarmed at the way news and advertising content has been mingled together beyond the control of news sites' editors.

The decision relates to native advertising material that is dressed up as editorial content and placed at the bottom of each story page. In the 'stories' covered in this particular complaint, completely fictional characters – a Levin man, Paraparaumu kid and Christchurch taxi driver – were purported to have made considerable sums from investing in Bitcoin. Viewers were attracted to the material because it was localized to their hometowns and presented as news headlines. On accessing the supposed articles, readers were taken to Bitcoin promotional material.

While the publications argue the content is advertising and they use visual cues to distinguish this paid content from independent news, the Council has ruled those cues fall short of international best practice, as does the mixing of news and advertising. The content is so clearly intended to look like news that the Council decided to accept the complaint and consider its impact on journalism standards in this country. As a result, we are urging the news sites to harden the lines between news and advertising, to ensure transparency and protect the New Zealand media's hard-won reputation for independent and high quality journalism. Readers deserve nothing less.

The full Press Council adjudication is at www.presscouncil.org.nz.

Response from Stuff: We are amending the title 'Promoted stories' on panels powered by Outbrain to now read 'Paid content', and are adding a link to a page that provides additional details about Outbrain's paid content.