The pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca sponsored tweets by the Associated Press Tuesday.
Each one has inspired yowls of pain from people surprised by this form of audience monetization.
@AP did AstraZeneca just hijack the AP twitter account? or has news been officially sold?
— Kern Patton (@kernicus) August 27, 2013
.@AP Wait. One of the country's foremost news agencies just sold out to pimp for a pharmaceutical company on twitter?
— Paul Boyé (@Phrontiersman) August 27, 2013
AP has used sponsored tweets before: During the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show, Samsung paid to ride along. Since then, Josh Sternberg wrote in July, “the AP has tactfully promoted meaningful tweets from Honda, Acura, Samsung and Edelman and will continue to judiciously use sponsored tweets as an additional revenue source.”
For what it’s worth, a March 2013 AP article described AstraZeneca as “struggling.”
