The key lesson from this research is that higher levels of credibility assigned to
editorial content “a priori” is no longer a universally valid concept. While this hypothesis
may be valid in some yet to be tested instances, we now know that it is not a universal
concept that is valid in every instance. Our finding of a lack of a “multiple” of credibility
and persuasion for editorial content appears to be closely related to the steady
decrease in overall credibility of print media among the general public over the past
decade (c.f., News Consumption and Believability Study, 2008). However, the fact still
remains that advertising and editorial content are at parity in many respects in their
ability to affect consumer attitudes on new product introductions.