The headline on a subsequent MPA press release announced its response: "MPA Accepts Anti-Drug Ad Challenge. MPA Board to Encourage and Coordinate Member Participation." The release went on to say the magazine industry "urged members to" actively promote the national anti-drug program "by running compelling anti-drug ads in their magazines and providing editorial support appropriate for their audiences." The MPA Board also approved a resolution to that effect.

One aspect that differentiates the drug czar's deal with the magazines from that with the TV networks is the government agency's decision to work only with those magazines that provide a congruent editorial environment. The government grants vastly different amounts of taxpayer money to different magazines, depending on how effective their content is deemed at building support for the war on drugs.

As one insider explained, "There were very specific, individual aspects" to picking which magazines got drug-office ad buys. It was a complicated process: "Everyone received the Request for Proposal [RFP] to submit their best shot," which could then be further refined, presumably after the drug-control office feedback. The final decision was based on "who gave the best value" regarding eyeballs delivered per dollar spent, says this source. Just as important were certain qualitative issues: "Anyone without the right editorial environment wouldn't even have gotten approached."

A sales executive then at a publication that had profited from a large ONDCP advertising buy said, "At the beginning, when [the ONDCP's ad agency] Bates had the business, I'd say to them, 'Look at this good [anti-drug] article.' Each magazine would go over there [to Bates] and show them editorially how great [i.e., on-message] the magazine was. There at the beginning, we thought we'd get credit if it happened that there were articles twice a year."

And indeed, the ONDCP rewarded publications that ran the "appropriate" anti-drug editorial content. Take the case of two magazines: Family Circle and Woman's Day, the latter published by Hachette Filipacchi Magazines Inc. To the average reader, these books probably appear about as different as Tweedledum and Tweedledee. But appearances can be deceptive. According to Hall's Magazine Reports Inc., an industry research group, Family Circle ran a hefty eight-and-a-half pages of anti-drug editorial matter in 1999. Woman's Day, on the other hand, ran none, states Hall's research director, Sandy Santora. Family Circle was the recipient of a $1.4 million drug-office ad buy, second only to Parade. The Woman's Day buy? Zero.

The differing ad-buy fates of the Sporting News, a weekly, and the monthly Sport are equally instructive. As noted above, the Sporting News' editor, Rawlings, said that he "was told that Gen. McCaffrey was going to use the magazine" to disseminate anti-drug messages, conferred with his publisher about running anti-drug stories and ran about half a dozen anti-drug features in 1999.

Sport magazine, published by EMAP Petersen Inc., a glossy monthly with roughly twice the circulation of the Sporting News, had a different editorial calendar. Editor John Roach said there was "nothing in 1999 that can even remotely be construed as an anti-drug feature."

The Sporting News received a fat 15-page ad buy from the government; among the other 23 magazines, the next highest page total was nine. In contrast, Sport captured just a single-page, $50,000 ad buy from ONDCP last year -- $364,000 less than the Sporting News got. For the Sporting News, a publication that according to the New York Times loses about $2 million a year, the revenue was significant.

The ONDCP "Strategy Platforms" guidelines specified that magazine articles should "target ... marijuana, inhalants and other drugs (cocaine, heroin)" and should focus equally on "Tweens" (kids ages 11 to 13), their parents and teenagers ages 14 to 18.

The main body of the document featured a platform called "Parenting Skills," which the drug office suggested should run in April and either October or November (editors got to choose between the latter two months). Among the skill sets that editors were to inculcate was: "Monitor: always know where [children] are, who they're with." Another was: "Set clear rules and enforce consistently with appropriate consequences."

In December and May, the "Your Child at Risk" months, editors were to inform readers: "All kids are potential targets for experimental drug use, regardless of where they live or how young they are."

Apparently, whether coincidentally or not, some editors took the "Platforms" literally. An article in the June 1 Family Circle instructs, "Monitor your child's activities." It then quotes an expert saying: "'Establish clear rules and expectations about what's OK and what's not, and consistently enforce them.'"

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