US GOVT CARROT FOR ANTI-DRUG ARTICLES

Six American magazines have received financial incentives for these
articles in an arrangement with the US drug control authorities

NEW YORK - Under a little-known financial agreement with the magazine
industry, the Office of National Drug Control Policy has encouraged
magazines indirectly to include anti-drug messages in their editorial content.

An article in the online magazine Salon on Friday reported that six
magazines - US News & World Report, The Sporting News, Family Circle,
Seventeen, Parade and USA Weekend - had benefited from a media campaign
that the office put in place over the last year, giving financial
incentives to magazines for content that the office considers sympathetic
to its anti-drug message.

The arrangement partly mimics one that existed with the television industry.

Until late January, White House drug-policy officials were given advance
viewings of more than 100 episodes on all the major networks.

If the government signed off on a particular show that featured an
anti-drug message, the networks received credit that reduced the number of
expensive public service announcements they were required by law to air.

The White House was allowed to review some scripts and advance footage of
such television shows as ER, Beverly Hills 90210 and Cosby.

After Salon reported the arrangement in January, the office said it would
no longer collaborate with the networks in that manner.

The office and executives of the six magazines mentioned said the office
never read articles before publication in deciding whether to grant a
credit or influenced editorial content in any way.

Ms Jacqueline Leo, president of the American Society of Magazine Editors,
said she saw nothing wrong with the arrangement, adding:

"There is an outright benefit to anyone who is in this programme, whether
it is in television or in print."

Mr Bob Weiner, a spokesman for the anti-drug office, said the arrangement
did not interfere with editorial content.

"We're doing everything legal and proper to get the word out to parents and
kids in order to continue to get drug use down," he said.

He said no news articles were given credit, just feature articles which
emphasised that children should not use drugs.

He mentioned a Seventeen magazine article that was given credit because it
featured the negative consequences that a young drug user faced.

The drug office did not deal with editors and did not interfere with the
editorial process, he noted.

Instead, the office's advertising staff gave credit for some articles which
the magazines submitted after they have run.

Although newspapers could also seek credit, the arrangement forbade news or
editorials to be considered for the pro bono match.

No newspapers have received advertising credit for editorial material that
has appeared on their pages, said Ms Shona Seifert, the executive who
handled the drug office account for Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide.

However, newspapers have struck a variety of other arrangements to satisfy
the drug policy office - The New York Times has printed school guides; The
Washington Post and other papers have run advertising on websites plugging
the drug policy office.