6 Steps to Free Publicity

Chapter 9

Advertorials That Don’t Cost You a Cent

From the time I can first remember reading the Sunday New York Times, I noticed copy by Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, in the upper-right-hand corner of an inside page of the “News of the Week in Review” section. The capitalized word Advertisement above the heading “Where We Stand” signaled that Shanker wasn’t a Times editorial writer, but that the AFT paid to have his editorial appear in that space. Perhaps two decades ago, I began to notice pages-long article sections in magazines such as The Atlantic Monthly that were similarly labeled “Advertisement.” Often they bore the sponsorship of the tourist boards of various countries, companies manufacturing beauty ...