Issue Media Group offers its underwriters the opportunity to directly align their brands with content about talent, innovation, diversity, and place. In addition, IMG provides corporations, governments, institutions, nonprofits, and foundations with similarly focused missions a way to use their media budgets to support and expand coverage of job growth, economic development, real estate, nonprofit innovation, city building, and place making.
Underwriting is the basis of our model as a publication. Underwriters are considered crucial to our organization and their support is the reason that IMG is able to produce content within a broad spectrum of topics. Support from underwriters allows IMG to dedicate editorial resources to cover key issue areas that are of importance to both the underwriter and IMG’s mission.
We work with like-minded stakeholders who have shared values and missions. Because of our intersecting interests, we may cover our underwriters' work journalistically. However, IMG observes strict boundaries regarding the direction, review, and approval of content that is published.
IMG encourages underwriters to pitch ideas through Editorial Advisories and to our editorial team. We value the knowledge our partners bring to our work, and we encourage underwriters to send story ideas, trends in underwriters' areas of expertise, and press releases. However, published content is at the discretion of the editorial teams and all final decisions regarding content are made without client approval.
While underwriters are not allowed to review or approve content, IMG works with them to establish focus areas that will be included in coverage. If an underwriter desires the ability to direct or edit content, the content will be considered “Partner Content,” and given a treatment that distinguishes it from editorial content. The underwriter's logo will be embedded in the story and a transparency statement will be included.
IMG works with underwriters to fully understand the issues they care about. However, IMG trusts its editorial teams to shape stories around issues in a way that will resonate with readers.
IMG honors truthfulness and strives to avoid conflicts of interest in our reporting. This includes real conflicts and acts that may appear to be a conflict. To this end, we opt to disclose any relationships with underwriters that could be perceived as complicating our journalistic mission.