DEAR PEP: My Magazine is in Bed with the Advertisers

I just started at a trade magazine covering a relatively small industry. The publisher and sales guys run amok in terms of giving away editorial in exchange for ads. Everything from company profiles, Q&As, smaller department features, the works. So far my proudest accomplishment was convincing the publisher to let us run advertorials with the words "advertiser sponsored content" on the page. Before that, they were disguising advertorials as bylined feature stories. Is this dilemma a bigger one for trade magazines than consumer mags? How does a new editor fight it? My previous magazine worked out a compromise with the sales guys -- we relegated BOB and FOB sections for news briefs and new product announcements and let the sales guys give preferential treatment to advertisers in those departments. In exchange, the sales folks had to keep a hands off attitude about the feature well.

Should I draw a line in the sand? Am I breaking some journalistic code of honor by going along with it, to ensure I'll receive a paycheck? —AAACK

Dear Aaack:

Yes, unfortunately, this is far too common among trade publications. You have taken a great first step in getting advertorials labeled as such. This is a standard recommendation in the ASME Guidelines for Editors and Publishers.   ASME (the American Society of Magazine Editors for long) includes business publications as well as consumer. The introduction to the guidelines says:

“For magazines to be trusted by consumers and to endure as brands, readers must be assured of their editorial integrity. With that core conviction in mind—and the overwhelming support of its members—the American Society of Magazine Editors for over two decades has issued guidelines to make sure that the difference between advertising and editorial content is transparent to readers and that there is no advertiser influence or pressure on editorial independence.”

What’s more, ASME says, “Advertisers should not pay to place their products in editorial pages nor should they demand placement in return for advertising. Editorial pages may display and credit products and tell readers where to buy them, as long as those pages are solely under editorial control.”

The American Business Media has an  Editorial Code of Ethics  that also covers advertising-editorial conflicts. Under their “general editorial code of ethics,” they pledge to, among other things:

•Avoid all conflicts of interest as well as any appearances of such conflicts.

• Maintain an appropriate professional distance from the direct preparation of special advertising sections or other advertisements.

• Show the distinction between news stories and editorials, columns and other opinion pieces.

• Accept as their primary responsibility the selection of editorial content based on readers' needs and interests.

Plus, there's a great book out that covers all this. 

So, I suggest providing your boss with a copy of the ASME Guidelines and the ABM Code in a nicely-worded presentation, acknowledging the magazine’s (unfortunate) tradition and the (equally unfortunate) economy but suggesting you work together to make some minor (for now) modifications to be more in line with professional standards.

Then change bit-by-bit, one small battle at a time, one advertiser at a time. Don’t try to completely reinvent the rules overnight—although that would be great in an ideal world. In this real world, you make more progress if you look less like a threat to a cozy status quo. Promote the idea of special FOB and BOB sections, as you did on the previous magazine. That was for the same company, so there is corporate precedent there. Do one department a month or so, so the change seems small. You’ll see the progress over time. Sort of like paving a road—you do it one stretch at a time and pretty soon you have an interstate. Then watch out for raccoons.

On Platform Agnostics and Disappearing Gatekeepers

Mary Stier, president and publisher, The Des Moines Register and Paul Leavitt, Washington News Editor of USA Today, were also on the Task Force on the Future of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. (See post on the task force .) Their comments related to newspapers, but they were pertinent to what is happening in today’s magazines. Leavitt and Stier have since moved on to different pursuits.

Stier said that discussions at The Register about the changing nature of the newspaper industry revolved around the following concepts:
• From process to platform: Information is not merely a story that goes through numerous editors and then is published, but it’s “platform agnostic” and can be used in media from newspaper to magazine and online.
• From us to them: It’s all about the consumer, not the communicator.
• From me to we: Readers want to participate in the discussion through virtual communities.
• From monologue to dialogue: The media are no longer the gatekeepers.

Leavitt said that the “new paradigm” at USA Today is: Write for the Web, update for the newspaper.

Will Magazines Float in The Sinking Economy?

In this current economic mess, I have often thought about how our over-consumption has caused us such grief. Yet, that consumerism is what drives many magazines, so it is a little difficult to be too critical of spending patterns that keep our careers going. Still, moderation is a good thing, and I hope we have learned that overbuilding and overspending have serious consequences.

We see more and more green products advertised, so that gives me hope for the industry and society as a whole.  How nice it is to be supported by products that do good.

Yet, spending is embedded in the American psyche and few of us are so holy that we don't fall into the "I gotta have it" trap, and the goods of our desire are not all that good for anything or anybody.   I just bought a pair of jeans and am really pleased at how they look—they do a nice job of showing off all the weight I have lost. And my reaction to this pleasure? I think I need to get another pair.

That is not moderation, is it? Advertisers love that about me, though.  Until they realize I am way too old to be demographically significant. No matter my age, my desire to have more and more helps stoke the economic engines quite nicely.  As long as I have the money to buy, I will continue to stoke, but I have always been a tad stingy, so the Madison Avenue had better not depend on me too much.  I am more generous in green expenses. I spend an inordinate amount on organic food and we're planning to beef up the solar power at our cabin--and get a new compost toilet. 

The economy also got me thinking about how magazines have weathered these types of storms in the past. During the worst economic downturn this country has seen, the Great Depression, magazines continued publishing—some even were started then. Esquire magazine began publishing in 1933, during the depths of the Depression. The New Yorker started in 1925, four years before the stock market crash,  and continued throughout the Depression. In fact, it had a shaky start and didn’t really gain momentum until the 1930s.

The Atlantic and Harper’s continued giving readers perspective on their world throughout the Depression. In 1932, The Atlantic published an article by John Maynard Keynes, titled, “The World’s Economic Outlook.”

The economy, then, can even help magazines by providing content about...the economy.

Naming names: When is an editor not an editor?

What does a magazine editor actually do in today’s multimedia world? Is the title—editor—still appropriate, given the varied responsibilities these folks carry on their shoulders? Meredith publishing vice president Jack Griffin doesn’t think so. Griffin recently told Folio: magazine that Meredith now hires “content strategists” rather than editors.

This may be a case of language being a little late in naming change, with editors having long ago taken on more varied, demanding, and complex roles while their titles have remained the same. Editors know their days of “only” managing copy and sending the book off to the printer disappeared with Murphy Brown, if they ever existed at all. Yet the title "editor" has endured. When Meredith advertises, its job listings call for editors, just as it has for nearly 100 years, and it is not likely to change that title. Nevertheless, the reality has vastly changed at Meredith and at publishers across the country.

Here’s some of what today’s editor juggles:

• Working with the publisher to manage the brand, which means presenting to current and potential advertisers and, often, dealing with media requests as varied as being on TV to overseeing special events. This includes some role in developing ancillary products.
• Maintaining the title’s budget, often a 7- or 8-digit responsibility.
• Managing the staff.
• Overseeing the editorial and design production—at all levels—of the magazine and, often, its Web components.
• Creating some content on her own, which may be limited to an editor’s letter, but might also include a feature or two or a blog.

Much, perhaps all, of this is stategic. It is also creative, intuitive, and socially and culturally engaged. That's today's editor.

Last year, the SJMC had a discussion with industry leaders about the future of journalism as part of the Task Force on the Future of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. At our first meeting in September, 2006, Don Peschke, president and founder of August Home Publishing, said that for many years his company thought of itself as a magazine publisher, but he soon realized it is a multimedia company.

Peschke says August Home hires people who are specialists in producing content but also generalists who are adept at thinking of a variety of ways to communicate that information. The challenge of these people is in establishing and understanding the interconnection between all media so that readers, viewers, and listeners can get the information they want the way they want it, he said.

This means that editors are now editors-plus—as those of you whose jobs have grown far beyond a 40- or 50- hour workweek know all too well. Editors still must be well versed in the old-fashioned values of writing and editing within an ethical framework, but they also must have a broad understanding of all media and their audiences.

Peschke said new graduates must specialize in some specific skill—writing, editing, design, Web production—when they start their careers, but as they move into leadership positions, they must become generalists who can see the big multimedia picture.

There are few strictly print editors anymore. Most at least have some Web responsibility—blogging, creating linked content, writing and editing online pieces, developing value-added information. No matter what we call them, editors have to manage a multitude of content types and do so strategically. And creatively, intuitively, and with social and cultural engagement.

Those of us who love words prefer the title “editor,” of course, partly for its graceful simplicity, but also for the legacy it implies. We want those who head today’s magazines to follow in the steps of history's great editors like The New Yorker’s Harold Ross or Glamour's Ruth Whitney.

Titles aside, today’s editors will leave their own unique footprints in the magazine history books— most likely a mass of varied tango-like steps, representative of the media complexity that requires them to dance lively just to keep up. No matter what they are called.

Wonder Magazine Dogs

I am extremely proud of and impressed by the Drake men's basketball team, which the local media are calling the Wonderdogs, for those of you living elsewhere.    They're doing a great job and it is marvelous to see them on ESPN and, this afternoon, CBS.

Still, where are the national media when Drake magazine students consistently win top national awards?  I suppose televising an editing session just wouldn't sell, huh?  DeSchepper lops off a dangling participle!  Collins follows by replacing a passive verb, but Walters challenges her with a full sentence recast.  Nelson tries a gerund, but the group blocks "ing" words. Stransky throws a free association!...

Ask PEP: How do I survive an acquisition?

I found out today that my magazine is being shuttered because of our recent acquisition. They want me to be considered for a senior/managing editor job for a sister publication based out of the same office. The editor apparently likes my work and wants to give me latitude to add some life to the magazine. It's called Dull As Dirt•, and it's as dull as it sounds. It would be a pay raise, though. And I'd get to stay put and at least job hunt later if I don't like it. I just really, really loved my current boss and the hot air•• industry and all the perks and bonuses and junkets that went with it. I'll have to find out if there's a way to get around non-compete policies and maybe freelance for the other hot air books just for fun. Or maybe I'll just have to take up a fun new hobby, or pursue other areas of journalism in my free time. 

Is the rest of the publishing industry in the tank right now too? Are editors often thrown into completely foreign beats? Successfully? How long do I give it before I jump ship? I guess it's a good way to diversify my resume.

I think I'm going to look for some wine!  —Not Dull in Illinois

[• I made that up: PEP. •• And that.]

PEP: The industry is, in fact, in quite a flux. The Web is taking over more and more; the economy has publishers frightened; advertisers are too often allowed editorial control and have never been known for the publishing acumen; and all this had led to the death of some formerly strong magazines. Conde Nast, in fact, just announced the final death knoll of the venerable HG, which had been struggling but was finally killed off because of Conde Nast’s acquisition of Architectural Digest. This was a bit of a twist—usually the magazines that are acquired are the most at risk, not those already in the publisher’s line.

Anyway, hang on for a while and see how the dust settles. You are right to check into the non-compete and see what freelancing is out there.  It is always good to have another outlet.  I think that is one reason blogging has become so popular.  It has a quicker turn-around than gardening and doesn't give you poison ivy.   It stinks when something wonderful goes sour, so you have my sympathies. I am truly sorry to say that you are not alone, however.   

Still, this is far from hopeless. It sounds like you are well respected in the company, and that is nothing to take lightly. I mean that very, very seriously. And, yes, editors are often thrown into completely new territory. Some thrive, some settle, some founder. It just depends on a variety of things, but you seem to have the ingredients there to thrive. If not, you have an enhanced resume that helps you go elsewhere. Don’t move too quickly, and especially do not move out of fear. Try to make your moves toward something exciting and challenging rather than away from something unpleasant.

And consider meditation or yoga rather than wine. Namaste.

Alum to alum: National Geographic Traveler Promotes TrustyPony

In her National Geographic Traveler blog , Katie Knorovsky (06) highlighted Berit Thorkelson’s Web site, TrustyPony. Katie had read about Berit’s site on PEP Talks. A nice blog-to-blog move. Sort of three degrees of separation in the blogosphere.

Re-enter re-enters

The Des Moines Register ran an article today about the I-80 Re-entry Job Fair for ex-offenders. It reminded me of re•enter magazine, which we did for The Annie E. Casey Foundation in 2004. So, editors Angela Paneck Dahman and Angela Daunis (and art director Karen Scherer, assistant editors Callie Dunbar and Chandni Jhunjhunwala, photo editor Erika Nortemann, editorial coordinator Betsy Rubiner and a staff of talented writers and designers), take another bow for the continued influence of your work. In my happy version of the world, somebody kept a copy of the magazine and said, "We need to follow this up with something." The job fair was that something. And nobody can talk me out of that happy version.  We were agenda setters of the best kind.

And I didn't realize re•enter magazine lives online, but here it is .