NYT: Where's The Line Between Edit And Ad?

Where’s the line between editorial and advertising? That’s the question the New York Times asked yesterday. Not that this gap has been a “gulf” (as the NYT puts it) any time recently, but it does seem as though the recession has got more magazines struggling to find ways to pay for their product. The Times reports that until recently, the threat of being disqualified from the American Society of Magazine Editors’ annual awards was usually enough to keep publishers on the conservative side, but now, says Susan Lyne, former chief executive of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, “people are really weighing what’s more important to them: being eligible for the National Magazine Awards or making their budgets.”