Bloggers Must Disclose Payments for Reviews – New York Times
Bloggers Must Disclose Payments for Reviews
Published: October 5, 2009
Filed at 2:48 p.m. ET
The Federal Trade Commission will try to regulate blogging for the first time, requiring writers on the Web to clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products.
The FTC said Monday its commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the final Web guidelines, which had been expected. Violating the rules, which take effect Dec. 1, could bring fines up to $11,000 per violation. Bloggers or advertisers also could face injunctions and be ordered to reimburse consumers for financial losses stemming from inappropriate product reviews.
The commission stopped short of specifying how bloggers must disclose conflicts of interest. Rich Cleland, assistant director of the FTC’s advertising practices division, said the disclosure must be ”clear and conspicuous,” no matter what form it will take.
Bloggers have long praised or panned products and services online. But what some consumers might not know is that many companies pay reviewers for their write-ups or give them free products such as toys or computers or trips to Disneyland. In contrast, at traditional journalism outlets, products borrowed for reviews generally have to be returned.
Before the FTC gave notice last November it was going to regulate such endorsements, blogs varied in the level of disclosures about these potential conflicts of interest.
The FTC’s proposal made many bloggers anxious. They said the scrutiny would make them nervous about posting even innocent comments.
To placate such fears, Cleland said the FTC will more likely go after an advertiser instead of a blogger for violations. The exception would be a blogger who runs a ”substantial” operation that violates FTC rules and already received a warning, he said.
Existing FTC rules already banned deceptive and unfair business practices. The final guidelines aim to clarify the law for the vast world of blogging. Not since 1980 had the commission revised its guidelines on endorsements and testimonials.
Cleland said a blogger who receives a freebie without the advertiser knowing would not violate FTC guidelines. For example, someone who gets a free bag of dog food as part of a promotion from a pet shop wouldn’t violate FTC guidelines if he writes about the product on his blog.
Blogger Linsey Krolik said she’s always disclosed any freebies she’s received on products she writes about, but has stepped up her efforts since last fall. She said she adds a notice at the end of a post, ”very clear in italics or bold or something — this is the deal. It’s not kind of buried.”
DC Universe: The Source » Blog Archive » Breaking: Dan DiDio and Philip Tan the new creative team on OUTSIDERS
Filed under: Coming Soon, Commentary, DC Entertainment
I totally missed this news. That will be the end of the book for me.
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009By Austin
Announced today at the Long Beach Comic Con, DC’s Executive Editor Dan DiDio will be taking over the reigns of The Outsiders with star artist Philip Tan on pencils.
Here are a few words from Dan himself:
“This is an exciting time for me both personally and professionally. I have been a fan of The Outsiders since their inception and with Pete Tomasi moving on to some very exciting projects in 2010, I have been afforded the opportunity to work with some of my favorite characters. Most importantly, this also gives me the chance to work with the immensely talented Philip Tan, and together I hope we can meet and exceed all expectations for this series.”
And what does Philip Tan have to say?
“I have orders from Dan to hunt down and skewer anyone who buys comics and doesn’t pick this up in January.
Seriously though, I can’t be more excited! Batman and the Outsiders is actually the first DC book I ever bought (and got stolen)! It will be a challenge to pick it up after Peter and Fernando’s run and continue to entertain, but Dan and I are extremely confident that we will be able to create some very exciting visual stories! There are tons of ideas that we want to play with! It is not only a huge honor for me to work on Dan’s first monthly book, but I’m also insanely giddy about being able to be creatively involved on a whole new level with this project, a level that I have never experienced!”
Check out the inks for the cover below, and check back here later this month to see it in color.
outsiders-26cover02
Dan DiDio Goes Monthly – Aaron’s Comic Books Blog
Filed under: Comic Book News, Coming Soon, DC Entertainment
Well this is bad news, I really like Outsiders and I will definitively drop the book when he takes over. I thought his Metal Men story was horrible
Dan DiDio Goes Monthly
Monday October 5, 2009Well one of the announcements from the Long Beach Comic-Con was that Dan DiDio is taking over the monthly writing chores of The Outsiders. DiDio is fresh off of his run of The Metal Men from Wednesday Comics, and a solid run at that. One might say that editor in chiefs should stick to running the business and that being a part of a comic will only take away from their duties, but I say it is refreshing to see editors like DiDio writing scripts and artists like Quesada jump into the day to day chores of creating comic books. It will surely give them perspective when dealing with creators on projects or at least remind them of their passion for the comic book world. Keeping things fresh is a big part of their job and they have both, for better or worse, tried to accomplish that. Go get em Dan.
