Canada Magazine Industry Advertising-Editorial Guidelines

Introduction

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, and to do so in a manner that is entirely transparent to the reader. 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.

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 “Sponsorship”).

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). Similarly, the magazine’s name or logo may appear in a third-party advertisement for a promotion, contest or event in which the magazine is a sponsor, partner or participant. 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 “Sponsorship”).

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 contests, as well as multiple-source articles that quote representatives from companies that have placed advertisements; wherever possible, efforts should be made to distance the

advertisements from the comments. There must be no promise of editorial mention in exchange for securing advertisements.

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, stand-alone 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.

A special advertising section is a set of advertising pages unified by a theme, accompanied by editorial-like text. 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 a special advertising section must be conspicuously identified as advertising, using phrases containing the words “advertisement,” “advertising” or “promotion.”

Appearance

The layout and design of such a section 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 a section (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, titles, bylines and/or pictures/headshots of regular, full-time editorial staff should not appear in or be associated with such special advertising sections. Nor should their names, bylines and/or pictures/headshots be associated with third-party inserts in their magazine. In topics and fields that they cover editorially in their magazine, staff should not be associated with contract magazines published by their magazine company, by advertisers themselves or by third parties such as contract publishers. Exceptions can be made for art staff desiring to improve the appearance of a special advertising section to better suit their magazine’s environment.

APPENDIX: TASK FORCE MEMBERS