Conference coverage: Ethics

Resolving ethics issues: A town hall meeting

Speakers:
Rance Crain, president, Crain Communications and editor-in-chief of Advertising Age
Jeffrey Seglin, ethics consultant and professor of publishing at Emerson College
Portia Stewart, national vice president, former president of the Kansas City Chapter, and editor of Firstline
Roy Harris, national president and senior editor for CFO
Paul Heney, national past president and current president for TABPI

Summary: ASBPE conducted a survey on ethics and had a 43 percent response rate. The survey found that 40 percent of editors have low job satisfaction because they have less resources and more pressure from advertisers.

Advertising Age Case Study: By having integrity, a magazine can gain trust from its readers and have stronger ancillary products. Rance Crain said editorial excellence makes good business sense, and it’s critical to get as close to the facts as a magazine can get. He discussed an ethical issue at his own magazine, Advertising Age, in which the sales team sold a mock front page of its magazine to an advertiser. All the cover stories were about the advertiser and in similar fonts to the ones used by the magazine. The mock cover didn’t go out to regular readers, but it was distributed to 1,000 attendees at an industry event. The person responsible for approving the cover wrap was fired.