Newspaper readers more readily trust news than advertising content. Therefore, journalists and media scholars consider it important that audiences can distinguish between news stories and advertisements. The authors collected survey responses from 321 daily newspapers on their standards for acceptable advertising for publication. The responses were analyzed to discover if advertising acceptance policies and practices reflect publications’ willingness to blur the lines between news and advertising sections. The data indicate that most newspapers are careful about letting advertisers pretend their messages are really news stories. In general, newspapers’ journalistic priorities for honesty influence their advertising policies. A few newspapers may use the editorial content to help sell advertising space and otherwise blur the lines between news and advertising content, but it is not a common and widespread problem.
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