Who controls the content?

David Shaw in his B or not 2B--A Business Media Blog has picked up an issue engaging the minds of business media in the US these days but which is ever present in Asia in different forms: the willingness of advertisers to protest editorial content by withdrawing their business. Several leading Hong Kong newspapers suffer from long-standing 'no ad' policies by local property developers who object to their editorial stance. This is often as much to do with sensitivities about mainland China politics as it is about unfavourable editorial coverage of the companies themselves although the principal is the same.

A strong editorial in Advertising Age also takes to task those companies and their advertising agencies who are pushing these new policies.