ASME Releases Tighter Guidelines on Magazines’ Native Advertising
The American Society of Magazine Editors has updated its guidelines for editors and publishers to further address sponsored content and “native” advertising online. The update is the organization’s first since 2011 and comes in response to magazine editors’ questions on the topic.
New language suggests magazines use the term “sponsored content” to help set apart native ads, which usually are designed to mimic a site’s editorial content. Native ads should also include “a prominent statement” or “What’s This?” link at the top to explain the origins of the article, the new guidelines say.
The portion that seems most likely to cause contention, however, says native ads “should not use type fonts and graphics resembling those used for editorial content and should be visually separated from editorial content.”
