I wrote many, many articles at Huckberry, and the majority of them were trend driven—our customers wanted authoritative takes on topics like the rise of big pants or 'stealth wealth.'
There are plenty of blogs out there written by brands, and they offer plenty of articles about why you should buy products that just happen to appear on their site.
We wanted the Journal to feel different, and articles like these were how we did it. Unexpected advice, a unique voice, and a real commitment to writing let our readers know that we weren't only there to sell them something.
(Though if they wanted to shop, we knew exactly where they could go!)