Monday, September 05, 2005

That fabled wall between church and state

Apparently Don Obe, retired head of the magazine program at Ryerson, is writing a piece for Masthead's back page on the crumbling wall between editorial and advertising, exemplified by the Maclean's deal with Cadillac last spring to "brand" an excerpt from Peter C. Newman's book. (I'm looking forward to Don's usually trenchant prose.)

Now, we have a suggestion that -- at least in part -- Kim Pittaway's departure from Chatelaine had to do with mandated association of an advertiser's brand with a feature. So, is this all about Rogers? Or is this a general trend out there?

Are magazine journalists and editors being too exquisite about this "church and state" separation, something that isn't sustainable in the hyper-competitive world? Or is the preservation of editorial integrity and reader trust a lesson that has to be constantly re-taught (or re-learned)?

Discuss, please.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

If readers can't trust their magazine to be clear and honest about what is and what isn't for sale, then we'll all lose out in the end.

4:46 pm  
Blogger Jon Spencer said...

I know some consumers personally. They can see right through the ad-edit cosiness. So it's not just us hyper-sensitives worrying.

9:35 pm  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home