In 1896, William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal endorsed William Jennings Bryan for president. Advertisers deserted the paper in droves, and Hearst lost a lot of money.

But New York was a rapidly growing city in a rapidly growing country. There was no radio, no television, no Internet. Hearst was able to withstand the pressure and, in only a few months, the advertisers had returned.

Now the threat from advertising is different. Newspaper display and classified advertising is declining, and advertorial increasing. Newspapers need it to stay in business.

A friend tells of pressure from editors to excise sponsor’s rivals from stories in advertising funded supplements. The terms under which such some supplements apparently offer access to editors – access you understand, not control. But the biggest display advertising contract never bought a ringside seat in an editorial conference.

Maybe it’s time for a Hearst moment to draw the boundaries? But this is the 21st century not the 19th. And the attention monopoly is long broken. A tougher line from papers and advertisers might take their shrinking budgets elsewhere…

So perhaps it’s a case of caveat emptor – and if you want a watchdog, be prepared to feed it yourself. (Or if you prefer a BBC analogy – buy a dog licence.)