U.S. OFFICE ENCOURAGES ANTI-DRUG MESSAGE IN MAGAZINES

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

An article in the online magazine Salon yesterday reported that six
magazines -- U.S. News & World Report, The Sporting News, Family
Circle, Seventeen, Parade and USA Weekend -- have benefited from a
media campaign that the drug policy office put in place over the last
year, giving financial incentives to magazines for content 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 broadcast.

The White House was allowed to review some scripts and advance footage
of such television shows as "E.R.," "Beverly Hills 90210" and "Cosby."
After Salon reported the arrangement in January, the office said they
would no longer collaborate with the networks in that manner.

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

The current advertising campaign across all forms of media began in
1997, when the head of the office, Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, was
authorized by Congress to spend up to $1 billion over five years in
television and print advertising against drug use. For every
advertisement bought by the office, the publication or network would
run a public service announcement or advertisement. But media
organizations were allowed to ask that an article that accentuates the
anti-drug message be used as a substitute.

Jacqueline Leo, president of the American Society of Magazine editors,
said she saw nothing wrong with the arrangement.

"There is an outright benefit to anyone who is in this program,
whether it is in television or in print," Ms. Leo said.

"This all sounds like it could lead down a slippery slope," she said,
"but as far as I know that has not happened."

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," Mr.
Weiner said.

Mr. Weiner said that no news articles were given credit, just feature
articles that emphasize 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.
Parade magazine was not given credit for a cover article on General
McCaffrey but did receive credit for a box that appeared with the
profile that listed 10 tips for parents on how to talk to their
children about drugs.

The drug office does not deal with editors and does not interfere with
the editorial process, he said. Instead, the office's advertising
staff gives credit for some articles that the magazines submit after
they have run.

"We are not offering financial incentives for writing certain types of
articles," Mr. Weiner said. "After the articles are written, decisions
are made. There is a wall between the editorial process and the sale
process.

Although newspapers can also seek credit, the arrangement forbids 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 Shona Seifert, the executive who handles
the drug office account for Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide.

But 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 their Web
sites plugging the drug policy office.

Bill Holiber, the publisher of U.S. News & World Report, said he
believed the magazine never actually submitted articles to the
anti-drug office for official review; he said the office would buy the
magazine on its own.

But Mr. Holiber, who just recently assumed the publisher's post, said
that although he did not see a conflict of interest, he would not run
any advertisements this year from the anti-drug office.

"I feel uncomfortable with the notion that a government agency would
even think they could determine the value of editorial content," he
said.