Advertorials: Boon or Bane?

That was the question at the chapter’s April panel discussion.

“Advertorials: Boon or Bane?” was the topic of discussion among a dozen participants in an ASBPE panel held Wednesday, April 10, at CXO Media in Framingham, MA. Maryfran Johnson, editor in chief of Computerworld, and Rick Nelson, a senior technical editor at Test & Measurement World, led the discussion.

Nelson led off urging that editors take a hard line in meeting the guidelines of the ASBPE code of ethics, which states that "Editors should not write, edit, design or otherwise create any content for advertisers or advertising sections."

Nelson contended that editors should not work on any advertiser-provided copy, including free, “bonus” product write-ups provided to advertisers in an issue. He also urged that such sections be labeled unambiguously as “advertisement”—not with a confusing “this material was provided by advertisers in this issue,” which, he said, has little meaning for readers. Nelson contended that any magazine content falls into one of only two categories: editorial or advertising.

Computerworld's Johnson intimated that the realities of publishing today require a more nuanced approach to the various forms of content a magazine can provide. She agreed that editors should not work on advertorials and that advertising that simulates editorial should be clearly labeled. However, she said that formats such as custom-publishing supplements and white papers each require their own sets of rules and approaches. And the web, she said, further complicates the picture, introducing vendor listings and other sections that don’t fall cleanly within an advertising or editorial category.

Additional discussion centered on the role of custom publishing. Why, asked one editor, have custom-publishing supplements at all? If the custom-publishing topic is germane to the publication, then why isn’t it on the editorial calendar?

Participants also discussed the role of freelance editors in the preparation of custom publications and advertorial copy. Is it appropriate to use a single freelancer to write editorial copy in one issue and custom-publishing content in another?

Distinct answers weren’t forthcoming, but the discussion served to get the issues on the table.

ASBPE members: Got an opinion on advertorials? Discuss it online.

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