5 ms·

Looks like somebody accidentally hit the "make visible to the entire planet" button on Teen Vogue's CMS instead of the "make visible to just Lauren so she can e

Looks like somebody accidentally hit the "make visible to the entire planet" button on Teen Vogue's CMS instead of the "make visible to just Lauren so she can edit it and submit it to her editor". That's the way submarine articles are written and the way a CMS works these days, no surprise to most of the people here I assume, but I still find it surprising that CMS vendors sell systems that have minimal friction required to publish something. You don't quite need an air-gapped multi-key cryptographically secure system, but a few checks by various parties that articles have been copy-edited, fact-checked, verified for browser support and accessibility, and approved by an editor would seem to alleviate a lot of embarrassing publication errors.

mirimir 7y ago
Wordpress can be like that.
- reilly3000 7y ago
  Indeed it can, but there are plenty of ways to bolt on an approval workflow. I would be genuinely shocked if a large publisher didn’t have such controls. No this was a sponsored piece that somebody sold to Facebook. This happens all the time, but Facebook’s PR activities are now under scrutiny.
tempsy 7y ago
The problem with the "it's Teen Vogue's fault for fat fingering the publication" is that Sheryl Sandberg immediately shared the article on her personal Facebook page. I mean, are we to believe that she did not realize this was paid sponcon by her own company (PR/comms falls under her leadership) that it was "mistakenly" published and was organic content (in which case she should've known as well as they had access to FB employees with pictures inside the office). Mistake or not, FB leadership clearly cheer led it's publication, and then walked back and claimed they had no idea this was sponsored, and only in the last hour or so said it was a "mistake" to deny it was sponsored.
- tmpz22 7y ago
  Can’t we assume at this point that Sandberg likely has someone posting on her behalf? Someone who likely is in PR/marketing working “next to” the person/team that spearheaded the article. This is particularly ironic because there are likely rules against account sharing that Facebook PR does not in fact follow.
  - tempsy 7y ago
    there's no way someone could've posted this on her personal FB page without her knowledge
    - rtpg 7y ago
      Ok, but I think you overestimate how much micromanagement might be going on. Simple story: - ok we'll do a sponsored post in teen vogue - story is written up! - oh, looks like it’s out, time to post about it There isn’t gross incompetence, at best it’s just a bit of a timing issue from the mistaken early publish.
    - SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
      Is that true? Maybe I misunderstand how powerful people typically use media, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to learn that Sheryl Sandberg has an assistant who's allowed to post to her personal Facebook.
      - tempsy 7y ago
        you’re conflating the act of posting something with posting something you made up without approval from the person in question.
      - PavlovsCat 7y ago
        > an assistant who's allowed to post to her personal Facebook "I was just giving orders." Such an assistant would be allowed by her.
  - yellow_lead 7y ago
GuiA 7y ago
The article was modified to include "Editor's note: This is sponsored editorial content." before it was taken down. That likely excludes the "someone hit publish by accident" hypothesis.
ajross 7y ago
That's probably true, but not really what's newsworthy and notable here. I mean, yeah, Teen Vogue surely didn't mean to publish it like that. But they did, and when they did Facebook promptly crowed about it and pretended that this was journalism showing (pause for breath) Facebook's dedication to honest media coverage. And it was a paid advertisement the whole time. That's... well, just ew. And none of that has anything to do with CMS features that made the mistake visible to the public.
cptskippy 7y ago
> I still find it surprising that CMS vendors sell systems that have minimal friction required to publish something. They don't, they offer flexible workflow systems not unlike CI/CD pipelines. Customers just want simple and fast, so that's how they configure them.
azmarks 7y ago
Except that Lauren says that she didn't write the story. https://mashable.com/article/facebook-teen-vogue-sponsored-content-election-integrity/ https://mashable.com/article/facebook-teen-vogue-sponsored-c... "At some point, Teen Vogue contributor Lauren Rearick was listed as the author of the story. When reached for comment, Rearick told Mashable that she did not write the article. "That isn’t my byline," she wrote over email. "I didn’t write this story.""
- LeifCarrotson 7y ago
  I don't think she wrote the article (to be clear, I also don't have any insider information on the situation). My conjecture (based on interactions with other journalists) was that the article was prepared for her by some Facebook PR firm as a draft for her to edit. Maybe she'd decline and it would go up as sponsored/editorial content, maybe she'd soften it up a bit and write it as her own article, maybe (unlikely in this specific case, though it certainly happens in eg. trade journals) she'd sign off on the puff piece exactly as submitted. A representative from that PR firm would have called, met with, or wined and dined with her and offered it for any of the above options, perhaps with an incentive of an exclusive interview as a reward or just as a free piece of work for her to sell to TV. I totally believe that Lauren didn't write it yet. She did write, for an example article, 'Kitsch X Justine Marjan Created a "Vote" Hair Clip' [1]. There's a significant chance that Kitsch or their PR firm contacted her and suggested that the clip might be something she's interested in writing about, perhaps including some sample copy. There's a chance she wrote that article entirely in a vaccuum, happening across an Instagram post, doing some research, making phone calls...but that's not the way most journalism happens today.

mirimir 7y ago

Wordpress can be like that.

reilly3000 7y ago
Indeed it can, but there are plenty of ways to bolt on an approval workflow. I would be genuinely shocked if a large publisher didn’t have such controls. No this was a sponsored piece that somebody sold to Facebook. This happens all the time, but Facebook’s PR activities are now under scrutiny.

tempsy 7y ago

The problem with the "it's Teen Vogue's fault for fat fingering the publication" is that Sheryl Sandberg immediately shared the article on her personal Facebook page. I mean, are we to believe that she did not realize this was paid sponcon by her own company (PR/comms falls under her leadership) that it was "mistakenly" published and was organic content (in which case she should've known as well as they had access to FB employees with pictures inside the office). Mistake or not, FB leadership clearly cheer led it's publication, and then walked back and claimed they had no idea this was sponsored, and only in the last hour or so said it was a "mistake" to deny it was sponsored.

tmpz22 7y ago
Can’t we assume at this point that Sandberg likely has someone posting on her behalf? Someone who likely is in PR/marketing working “next to” the person/team that spearheaded the article. This is particularly ironic because there are likely rules against account sharing that Facebook PR does not in fact follow.
- tempsy 7y ago
  there's no way someone could've posted this on her personal FB page without her knowledge
  - rtpg 7y ago
    Ok, but I think you overestimate how much micromanagement might be going on. Simple story: - ok we'll do a sponsored post in teen vogue - story is written up! - oh, looks like it’s out, time to post about it There isn’t gross incompetence, at best it’s just a bit of a timing issue from the mistaken early publish.
  - SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
    Is that true? Maybe I misunderstand how powerful people typically use media, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to learn that Sheryl Sandberg has an assistant who's allowed to post to her personal Facebook.
    - tempsy 7y ago
      you’re conflating the act of posting something with posting something you made up without approval from the person in question.
    - PavlovsCat 7y ago
      > an assistant who's allowed to post to her personal Facebook "I was just giving orders." Such an assistant would be allowed by her.
- yellow_lead 7y ago

GuiA 7y ago

The article was modified to include "Editor's note: This is sponsored editorial content." before it was taken down. That likely excludes the "someone hit publish by accident" hypothesis.

ajross 7y ago

That's probably true, but not really what's newsworthy and notable here. I mean, yeah, Teen Vogue surely didn't mean to publish it like that. But they did, and when they did Facebook promptly crowed about it and pretended that this was journalism showing (pause for breath) Facebook's dedication to honest media coverage. And it was a paid advertisement the whole time. That's... well, just ew. And none of that has anything to do with CMS features that made the mistake visible to the public.

cptskippy 7y ago

> I still find it surprising that CMS vendors sell systems that have minimal friction required to publish something. They don't, they offer flexible workflow systems not unlike CI/CD pipelines. Customers just want simple and fast, so that's how they configure them.

azmarks 7y ago

Except that Lauren says that she didn't write the story. https://mashable.com/article/facebook-teen-vogue-sponsored-content-election-integrity/ https://mashable.com/article/facebook-teen-vogue-sponsored-c... "At some point, Teen Vogue contributor Lauren Rearick was listed as the author of the story. When reached for comment, Rearick told Mashable that she did not write the article. "That isn’t my byline," she wrote over email. "I didn’t write this story.""

LeifCarrotson 7y ago
I don't think she wrote the article (to be clear, I also don't have any insider information on the situation). My conjecture (based on interactions with other journalists) was that the article was prepared for her by some Facebook PR firm as a draft for her to edit. Maybe she'd decline and it would go up as sponsored/editorial content, maybe she'd soften it up a bit and write it as her own article, maybe (unlikely in this specific case, though it certainly happens in eg. trade journals) she'd sign off on the puff piece exactly as submitted. A representative from that PR firm would have called, met with, or wined and dined with her and offered it for any of the above options, perhaps with an incentive of an exclusive interview as a reward or just as a free piece of work for her to sell to TV. I totally believe that Lauren didn't write it yet. She did write, for an example article, 'Kitsch X Justine Marjan Created a "Vote" Hair Clip' [1]. There's a significant chance that Kitsch or their PR firm contacted her and suggested that the clip might be something she's interested in writing about, perhaps including some sample copy. There's a chance she wrote that article entirely in a vaccuum, happening across an Instagram post, doing some research, making phone calls...but that's not the way most journalism happens today.