It’s called “matte release distribution”. These items are often published without any hint as to their self-serving nature.
Businesses send these articles out to newspapers either “for free”, or as “press releases”. The laws are mysteriously vague.
Of course, it’s all up to the editors. No pressure! But, well, if a specific paper decides not to publish, or to overly edit or fact-check the business, the business in question may well also decide not to run paid advertising by that paper. Now, for the big newspapers, that doesn’t matter, but… how do you think they got so big, in the first place, eh?
Sanhedrin 76b:
ואמר רב כהנא משום רבי עקיבא הוי זהיר מן היועצך לפי דרכו.