Canadian Magazine Industry Advertising-Editorial Guidelines
The National Magazine Awards Foundation endorses and supports the following guidelines.
Magazine readers value both editorial content and advertising as sources of information. The integrity and long-term viability of magazines depends, however, on a clear distinction between the two—without it, both editorial and advertising lose credibility with the reader.
The following guidelines are intended to help editors, publishers and advertisers maintain an industry-wide standard for preserving this crucial distinction. The guidelines have been designed so that both editors and advertising sales teams clearly understand them, and are able to confidently communicate them to customers.
The editor or editor’s designate should have the opportunity to monitor compliance with these guidelines, complete with ample time to recommend necessary changes prior to publication. The ultimate responsibility to follow the guidelines rests with the publisher.
PART I: ADVERTISEMENTS
An advertisement is content paid for by an advertiser to promote its products or services. Such content may appear as a single page, double-page spread, fractional configuration, insert or onsert. Special advertising sections are addressed separately in these guidelines.
- LABELLING: Any advertisement that contains text or design elements that have an editorial appearance must be conspicuously identified with the word "advertising'’ or "advertisement."
- APPEARANCE: The layout and design of advertisements should be entirely different from the publication's normal layout and design.
- COVERS: No advertisement may be promoted on the cover of the magazine or included in the editorial table of contents, unless it involves an editorially directed contest, promotion or sponsored one-off editorial extra (see #7).
- LOGOS: The magazine’s name or logo should not appear in advertisements, unless the advertisements are for the magazine and/or its promotions (or the advertised product has previously received an editorial award or review from the magazine). Advertiser logos should not appear on editorial pages, except in a journalistic context, including editorial-driven contests, promotions or sponsored one-off editorial extras (see #7).
- ADJACENCY: Advertisements should not be placed immediately before, within or immediately after editorial content that includes mention of the advertised products or services. Exceptions are allowed for listings and contest sponsors.
- PRODUCT PLACEMENT: No advertiser may purchase product placement or mention in editorial pages, photographs or illustrations.
- SPONSORSHIP: An advertiser's name or logo may not be used to suggest advertising sponsorship of any regularly appearing editorial. Nor shall any regularly appearing editorial be labelled as "sponsored" (or “brought to you by” or any other variation thereof) by an advertiser. Sponsorship language may only be used with one-off editorial extras, such as special features, sections, contests, standalone brand extensions, inserts and onserts, provided the editorial content of the editorial extra does not mention or endorse the advertiser (and the advertiser does not have input in the creation of the editorial). Sponsorship language may also be used for annual awards programs and rankings.
PART II: SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTIONS
A special advertising section is a set of advertising pages unified by a theme, accompanied by editorial-like text. In order to avoid potential conflicts or overlaps with editorial content, publishers should notify editors well in advance of their plans to run special advertising sections.
- LABELLING: Each text page or spread in special advertising sections must be conspicuously identified as advertising, using phrases containing the words advertisement, advertising or promotion.
- APPEARANCE: The layout and design of such sections should be entirely different from the publication's normal layout and design.
- COVER: No special advertising section may be promoted on the publication's cover or included in the editorial table of contents.
- LOGOS: The publication's name or logo should not appear in the headlines, text or folios of such sections (unless the advertised product has received an editorial award from the magazine). A line such as, "As published in [magazine name here]” may appear on the first page or cover of the advertising section to accommodate overrun opportunities.
- STAFF: The names and/or titles of editorial staff and regular contributors should not appear on, or be associated with, special advertising sections. Editorial staff should not be required to prepare advertising sections for their own publications, other publications in their field or advertisers in the fields they cover.
APPENDIX: TASK FORCE MEMBERS
- Chair: Patrick Walsh, chair, Magazines Canada membership committee; secretary, National Magazine Awards Foundation; editor, Outdoor Canada (Transcontinental Media)
- John Macfarlane, editor, Toronto Life; vice-president, strategic development (St. Joseph’s Media)
- Gayle Taguchi, national sales manager, Homemaker’s, Canadian Living, Madame, Coup de Pouce (Transcontinental)
- Penny Caldwell, editor, Cottage Life (Quarto Communications)
- Kirby Miller, vice-president, sales and operations (House and Home Media)
- Lorraine Hoefler, advertising director, Maclean’s (Rogers Media)
- Douglas Thomson, president, Canadian Society of Magazine Editors; editor, Canadian Home Workshop (Transcontinental Media)
- Laurie Jennings, director, Canadian Society of Magazine Editors; associate editor, projects (Rogers Media)
- Tom Hopkins, former editorial director, Avid Media Inc.; former Magazines Canada board member
- D.B. Scott, magazine industry consultant, Impresa Communications
- Derek Webster, director, Magazines Canada; editor/publisher, Maisonneuve
- Ruth Kelly, publisher, Alberta Venture (Venture Publishing)
- Peter Stockland, editor, Reader’s Digest
