Article mentions companies by name: "This is just an advertisement! Shill journalism!"

Article doesn't mention companies by name: "The reporter didn't include any specifics! Lazy journalism!"

I work for one of the companies mentioned, and we don't / did not pay for the name drop. Maybe one of the others did, but we did not.

Is there the usual kind of database on the backend for your system?

Likely not that much. HuffPost, Business Insider, and others articles can be bought for a few hundred bucks.

Exactly! I read it as such as well.

Advertising usually costs 80k.

what are they advertising?

"Instead, companies are turning to new, cloud-based technologies from Anaplan Inc., Workiva Inc., Adaptive Insights and their competitors.

The newer software connects with existing accounting and enterprise resource management systems, including those made by Oracle Corp. or SAP SE. This lets accountants aggregate, analyze and report data on one unified platform, often without additional training.

Adobe switched to Anaplan early last year and many of the tasks previously performed in spreadsheets are now done in the system, maintaining “one source of truth,” Mr. Garrett said."

Easy:

> Instead, companies are turning to new, cloud-based technologies from Anaplan Inc., Workiva Inc., Adaptive Insights and their competitors.

Indeed Very fast into the article I classified it as advertisment.

Probably referring to the alternatives mentioned

Instead, companies are turning to new, cloud-based technologies from Anaplan Inc., Workiva Inc., Adaptive Insights and their competitors.

Could also be the updates in Excel.