• by Erik Sass , April 17, 2009

Hard times are putting stress on a number of media industry organizations, and the American Society of Magazine Editors isn't exempt: scrambling to stop or -- at least slow -- a precipitous drop in ad revenue. Moreover, many ASME members are openly flouting the organization's guidelines for keeping advertising and editorial content separate. This includes a growing number of magazines that are integrating advertising into their covers, verboten by ASME.

ASME just doled out a third official rebuke to a member publication for mixing its cover with advertising. The April 20 issue of Us Weekly received by subscribers carried an entire faux cover from a supposed 1940s version of the magazine to promote "Grey Gardens," the new HBO series starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore, coordinated with a five-page ad spread inside the magazine.

Underneath the faux cover, which did not appear on newsstand issues, was the real cover featuring Lindsay Lohan. The faux cover was also identified as advertising. However, ASME CEO Sid Holt chastised Us Weekly in an email, reiterating: "ASME firmly believes that advertising cannot obscure the cover in any manner whatsoever, especially advertising that mimics editorial."

ASME faces a rising tide of unorthodox advertising placements by many of its members, spurred by a punishing slump in ad pages and revenue. Earlier this month, ASME singled out two particularly egregious offenders, Entertainment Weekly and ESPN the Magazine, for issues with covers that incorporated advertising. The cover of EW's April 3 issue, featuring Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe, included a tab encouraging readers to "Pull this!" It revealed a promotion for "The Unusuals," a new show from ABC. ESPN the Magazine integrated a half-page ad for Powerade that obscured the cover of its April 6 issue.

While ASME can criticize magazines for violating its guidelines, as a voluntary industry body, it has no regulatory power besides threatening to disqualify magazines from the National Magazine Awards. Its wrist slaps have little effect on other magazines that are putting ads on their covers, including Esquire and Scholastic Parent and Child. Indeed, last week, the latter revealed plans to run more ads on its cover -- including cover strip ads and cover corner peels with coupons, according to Mediaweek, which first reported the news. These attention-getting ads will begin running in the October and November issues of the magazine.

The downward spiral in magazine ad pages explains the flagrant advertising. According to the Publishers Information Bureau, magazine ad pages plunged 26% in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period last year. The rate of decline has broadly increased, according to MIN Online, with an 18.8% decline in January, 19.3% in February, 26% in March, and 24% in April.