Not once in my two years of blogging with Stuff have I ever once been asked to edit or change something because of the wishes of an advertiser. That simply does not happen and quite frankly is a complete (and often amusing!) myth.

In regards to editing, blogs are uploaded by a web editor who may proof for spelling/grammar, obvious factual errors or legal issues – all of which would be raised with the blog writer before publication.
Bloggers, whether they are writing for a mainstream media organisation or just for themselves, are still bound by the same legalities – meaning they can’t “write what they want” without possible consequences.
In any case, a “true blogger”, by a mash up of definitions, is not considered someone who “writes whatever they want” – but instead “writes entries in, adds material to, or maintains a weblog with frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and links”.

In regards to your incorrect statement about our servers, our Kiwi readers access content from New Zealand-based servers.
Hope this clears a few things up.
Cheers!

This story is right, Stuff is an example of news being replaced with product. Page hits are all that matters and if that means ignoring news and filling the front page with entertainment and opinion, so be it. A backlash against Stuff started when it blatantly switched to the SMH format and based its servers offshore, more people are rejecting it in favour of reliable news sources (which probably doesn’t bother Stuff as it picks up viewers wanting pure entertainment).