Sponsored work pays for the free reading. That arrangement is only fair if you can tell, at a glance, which words were paid for. This note lays out exactly how marking works on every Urban Pulse publication, and where the hard lines sit.
The rule in one sentence
If money changed hands, the page says so at the top, before you start reading. A sponsored article carries a SPONSORED tag above its headline, in the same mono type we use for station codes, plus a line naming the partner. An article with affiliate links says so in the first screen. There are no mid-article surprises, no "partner content" euphemisms, and no labels hidden in a footer.
What sponsors can buy
- Display placements: ad units beside our reporting, sold direct or through our display technology partner.
- Sponsored posts: articles written with our editors about a sponsor's product, labelled as described above.
- Affiliate slots: product picks in clearly marked roundups, where we earn a commission if you buy.
What sponsors cannot buy
- Review scores, star ratings or rankings. Not for any price.
- Pre-approval of editorial copy. A sponsor has never seen a review before publication. Not once.
- Removal of criticism. If the product has a weak point, it stays in the article.
- The label itself. Sponsored means labelled, always.
The label goes on before the headline does.
How a sponsored post gets made
- The brand sends a brief: product, audience, what they want readers to understand.
- An editor decides whether the topic serves the reader. Many briefs die here.
- A writer drafts with the sponsor's product and our own questions, not the sponsor's talking points.
- The label is applied before the headline is written, so nobody forgets.
- Performance is reported to the sponsor weekly. Comments stay open under the article.
What this costs us
We turn down work. Every rejected brief is money left on the table this quarter, accepted because the alternative is worse: a reader who stops trusting the label stops trusting the site, and then there is nothing left to sell. The same rules appear in the media kit we send partners, so nobody learns them after signing. If you are considering a partnership, the advertisers page explains the working relationship, and the network page shows which publications your brand would sit beside.