In the news: How should magazine publishers manage advertorial content eerily similar to their own editorial content?

Native advertising continues to drum up a lot of debate. At the MPA's annual conference, various magazine executives discussed the need for guidelines as magazines roll out issues with advertising content that is difficult to distinguish from editorial content. Regardless of how successfully magazines are in regulating native ads, industry insiders agree that this mode of advertising is fast becoming the norm.

Tom Harty of Meredith Corporation takes this normalization of native advertising a step further and states, "Magazines are the original native ads." Read more about the MPA conference discussion here and here.

Also Notable

Postal Rate Hikes and Magazine Publishing

Native advertising wasn't the only hot topic at MPA's American Magazine Media Conference this month. MPA CEO Mary Berner had some harsh words for Congress in response to imminent postage rate hikes, taking the government to task for punishing loyal USPS customers with the emergency price changes. Read her comments here.

More from the American Magazine Media Conference

Time Inc. CEO Joe Ripp had some advice for magazine publishers at the MPA conference: "We need to move faster." Executives discussed ways to make content as vivid in digital as it is in print and the opportunities television presents for magazine brands. Read AdWeek.com's roundup of the conference's key discussion topics here.

Quarter 3 Magazine Figures

The third quarter numbers are out, and there's some good news for consumer magazine publishers: while print ad pages are down 1.8 percent, print ad revenue is up 4 percent. Even more encouraging, overall magazine readership is up nearly 3 percent. Read more about the third quarter here.

The Modern Magazine

What exactly is a magazine, anyway? In a recent AdAge.com piece, Simon Dumenco reflect upon AdAge's first Magazine A-List in 2002 and reaches some interesting conclusions about the state of magazines today. Most noteworthy, he writes, are the magazine brands that find ways to survive decade after decade. Read his article here.

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