A look inside the world of advertising-free publishing: A case study of Ms. Magazine

Research has shown that advertising can shape the editorial content of magazines, especially women’s and trade publications. This case study looks closely at one of the few mass circulation magazines to have published both with and without advertising—Ms. This study seeks to capture the unique experiences of the women who now publish with only reader support in the shadow of what they believe is an ad-dominated medium. From their perspective, advertising impacts the magazine industry in ways that even they failed to realize before Ms. moved to its current format. This research also suggests a basic distinction between advertising- and ideology-driven publications. This distinction may prove important to our understanding of how advertising impacts and relates to the media that carry it.