Lines blur between ads and articles

Nearly 116,000 such publications now exist, says Lori Rosen, executive director of the Custom Publishing Council. That's up 20 percent from four years ago. Most are up-front about their sponsors, she says, though there are no industry rules on disclosure.

"Bloomingdale's came out with a new magazine last year," Ms. Rosen says. "It's called B. You can tell Bloomingdale's is publishing it ... but the articles are lifestyle articles that could be in any magazine." Rosen doubts whether client-driven publications are having an influence on consumer magazines.

ASME's Ms. Kahan agrees. "I think in a sense you know what [a custom publication] is, and you know it's an advertising vehicle," she says. "But when it creeps into, I guess you could say, 'real journalism,' that's problematic."

For independent magazines, in particular, allowing marketers a stealthy foothold represents a destructive, short-term approach that could cost them loyalty and circulation, says Rogier van Bakel, an ad-watcher and former editor in chief of Creativity magazine, an offshoot of AdAge.

"What good magazines have is a remarkably close relationship with readers that no TV station and few newspapers can match," writes Mr. Van Bakel in an e-mail. "People used to trust magazines the way they trusted a good friend and confidant, and it takes a magazine years and years to build up that level of trust, that credibility."

Embedding products into stories will ultimately backfire on advertisers, Van Bakel writes, if the magazines they need squander their credibility with readers.

With regard to the Land Rover in the Ski magazine story, a staffer in Boulder, Colo., maintains that the line between advertising and articles remains clear and uncrossed.

"As far as I know, we assigned the piece to the writer and asked him to choose the vehicle that would be best for the situation," says Kellee Katagi, Ski's managing editor. "Obviously the advertisers end up loving it," she says, "but the decisionmaking process didn't include the ad department or [influence] ad-buying decisions."

The piece is a "product story," says Land Rover spokeswoman Deborah Sandford, who says the firm's public relations arm, for which she works, keeps a strict separation from its advertising division.

Ms. Sandford says she does not know whether her firm ever buys space in Ski. (Her counterpart in advertising, Natalie Bow, confirms that it does.)

A PR practice is to "pitch a journalist to drive our product," Sandford explains, and hope that the journalist sells the story to a publication.

"But never do the twain meet for us," she adds, "in the sense of crossing between public relations and advertising."

Critics don't buy it. "Whether you call it advertising or public relations really doesn't matter," says Hart. "[Publications are] still pulling one on the readers, and the end effect is the same: You're promoting a product."

Page: 1 | 2