A different editorial standard

I know that many publications in Europe view the separation between editorial and the industry as — shall we say — less stringent than many publications here in the U.S.

While of course there are exceptions on both sides of the Pond, it’s expected for vendors to pick up a European reporter’s expenses for visiting conferences, press events, and other junkets, for example. Just about everyone does it.

That creates problems, of course, for European companies trying to work with North American reporters… or for North American companies trying to figure out why European beat reporters are submitting expenses for payment.

With that said of course, I was surprised by the casual coziness expressed in this e-mail, which I received today, from the editor of a U.K. publication called Design Buy Build, which invites vendors to send information to be run, presumably verbatim, within their editorial content. If you’d like to have the editors print a color picture, there’s a fee for that.

It’s truly a different world.

Coincidentally, it arrived while I was serving as a judge for the Neal Awards, from American Business Media. One of the areas we must evaluate (as best we can) is whether it appears that a magazine or Web site’s editorial content is truly independent of industry or advertising pressures, according to ABM’s code of editorial ethics. Needless to say, Design Buy Build wouldn’t score very highly there.

Here’s the e-mail:

To: Public Relations Manager 16/1/08

We are currently setting our editorial feature pages within our Jan/Feb edition, which will be distributed at the end of January to our Unique circulation of over 50,000 key specifiers & purchasers within the whole building & design industry. Including: Architects – House Builders – Developers – Contractors – Interior Designers – Self Builders – Housing Associations – Purchasers within the Hotel & Leisure Industry, Health care, Local Authorities, Public Sector & Private Practices. 5,000 extra copies of this edition will also be distributed from our stands at Ecobuild, Futurebuild, Cityscape & The Natural Stoneshow.

I am hoping you can provide some of the following information, that we may feature within the editorial matter.

Latest Product Innovations, New Literature, or Case Studies
(Copy consists of either a colour image along with 80-100 words of text)

Supported by over fifty of the most respected building & design associations throughout the UK, including editorial feature articles from the NBAT, the leading technical writers within the industry, the publication also features a comprehensive look at the latest design innovations as well as updates in regulations, health & safety, education and C.P.D. amongst others, providing our readers with a publication that pulls together the many different resources available today, giving them an informative read that promotes the best in our profession. The latest issue can be viewed at www.designbuybuild.co.uk

Please email your latest information to (address removed)

Please also confirm if you would be willing to pay the £85 colour seperation charge to feature the image in colour.