Mag Editors Update Advertising Guidelines

(Chicago Sun Times) — Late last week, the American Society of Magazine Editors unveiled a revamped version of its “Guidelines for Editors and Publishers,” one of the core documents of the organization whose membership includes hundreds of editors from America’s most well-known magazines. The guidelines are meant to make clear the proper relationship between editorial and advertising in member publications.  The release of the updated guidelines prompted a vivid flashback for us to five years ago, when ASME board members debated just how flagrant a violation the New Yorker magazine had committed in an infamous single-advertiser issue featuring beautifully rendered full-page ads from Target. But there were two big problems: The ads mirrored the style of New Yorker cartoons, and nowhere was there an indication the drawings were indeed ads.

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