From the other side of the fence (Score 1)

So I just thought someone in sales should enter the mix here. I sell ads in game mags and know for a fact that there are 2 camps out there. Those who sell their edit and those who don't. I work for one who doesn't. There are no shades of gray. There aren't enough dollars out there to change a publishers mind. If you don't sell your edit then you have clear lines of church and state. If you do then it's like a secret rate card between the mag/website and the publisher. The only gray would be Cover Poster and Advertorials. Those are clearly labeled as advertising and should be treated as such - we are running a business! And Cover Posters are never tied to any editorial guarantee. You will never see a cover poster tied to a Cover Story. I have also sold ads for other industries and count myself lucky that I've always worked for magazines which value their integrity over their bank roll. Not to say we aren't in the business of making money. Not to say that having editorial integretity doesn't lead to money. It's simple long term math. Company X spends $1MM a year with a magazine. They threaten to pull ads if they don't get the cover stories, or more favorable reviews - or even just no review at all if their game stinks. Say the magazine plays ball. And word gets out that edit is for sale among other publishers. And more people want to buy. You already started down the slippery slope, so why not. And life is great for a few years. Money comes in and sales has it pretty easy. Then the reader figures things out. Why did this game get the cover? Why did that game get the cover? Why the hell did this game get that score!?! And circulation starts to drop. So shady circ deals are brokered to keep the circ up. People get subscriptions using Frequent Flyer points. Anything to keep their circ up. And that works for a while, but ultimately the poor editorial will kill the reader base. When that happens the $1MM advertiser will stop caring whether or not you cover their game, and forget about advertising with you. Your rates will drop to the floor. You will be forced to sell more edit in order to keep the lights on. Ad your circ will continue to erode. That is why a smart publisher doesn't go down this road. Unfortunately the process for a magazine to feel this impact is long. Very long. Shoe doesn't want to wait for consumers to figure this out on their own. Nor does he want Game journalism as a whole to be labeled as "For Sale". If that happens then we all lose and the pubs which held on to their integrity didn't even get a pay day. GamiDaily Biz said they were going to cover this a while back and never did. If not them, then who? Is CNN really going to cover this story unless someone makes some noise? To whom does the responsibility fall? Honestly, I'm not sure if Shoe was the right person. I am glad that someone said it though.