Know that advertisers influence
editorial copy
The editorial and advertising departments of journalistic publications are
supposed to be like church and state: completely separate. In reality, health
and fitness magazines sometimes abandon objectivity and censor or alter
their stories to favor the companies that buy advertisements from them.Product reviews are a good example. “At one magazine where I worked, we
had to sugar-coat our shoe reviews because of advertising pressures,” says a
writer we know. “With certain shoes, we had to search for aspects that weren’t
negative and emphasize those. Like if a shoe was incredibly stiff, we’d write
some innocuous copy about how the shoe had a good lacing system.”The crumbling bridge between advertising and editorial is perhaps most evi-
dent in a growing category of advertising called the advertorial.These are
paid ads intended to look like regular articles. Typically, the layouts, type-
face, and photos are very similar to the magazine’s editorial style so readers
won’t make the distinction. The more manipulative advertorials even have
bylines (for example, “By Joe Schmo”) so that the ads look like articles that
have been written by regular reporters. Most magazines require advertisers
to include the word advertisementat the top or bottom of the page, but some-
times the type is so small it’s easy to miss.A prominent women’s magazine recently ran an advertorial on home exercise
equipment. It was designed to look like an editorial product review, complete
with a writer’s byline and a ratings system. (Surprise — all the products
received the largest number of stars possible!) The word advertisementwas
printed in small, light red letters at the top of the first page.Newspapers
We’re glad daily papers have stepped up their fitness coverage, but don’t use
the dailies as your only source of fitness information. Newspaper reporters
tend to be very responsible about attributing information to experts. The
problem is, given the reporters’ tight deadlines, they often have no choice
but to interview the first available expert, who may not necessarily be the
best expert (and may not be an expert at all). Magazine writers sometimes
run into this problem, too.Also, newspaper reporters tend to be jack-of-all-trades types who may not
have the fitness experience to distinguish a real expert from a charlatan. Only
the largest newspapers can afford to have reporters who cover the fitness
beat exclusively.390 Fitness For Dummies, 3rd Edition