America's Federal Trade Commission has followed years of study with new guidelines for native advertising to protect readers.

Seen as a bright hope for the future of advertising for news media publishers, the editorial-style content has the additional advantage that it is typically immune to ad blockers.

The FTC hosted workshops for advertisers and publishers on the "blurred lines" of what is advertising or content.

Now it has issued a statement that "deception occurs when consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances are misled about its nature or source, and such misleading impression is likely to affect their decisions or conduct regarding the advertised product or the advertising"... "regardless of the medium in which an advertising or promotional message is disseminated".

An 11-page guide supports the gudelines and includes examples of native ads and the disclosures that would be required. Disclosures must be "clear and prominent" as well as "understandable" and close to the relevant headline. It says terms "likely to be understood" by consumers include 'Ad' and 'Sponsored advertising content', while terms such as 'Promoted' or 'Promoted stories' were "at best ambiguous and potentially could mislead consumers that advertising content is endorsed by a publisher site".

Guidelines say readers need to be told before they click on a link that they will be taken to a native ad.

Native ad spending in the US is expected to reach $4.3 billion - an increase of one third - in 2015, according to eMarketer.