Editorial and advertising stay separate

Meridian is funded in part by advertising. This policy explains the rules that keep our journalism independent of our advertising — and our advertising honest with our readers.

The separation principle

Editorial content and advertising are created and managed independently. Advertisers do not influence story selection, reporting, headlines, reviews, or opinions. Our editors do not know — and do not need to know — which advertisers appear alongside their work. No amount of advertising spend buys favorable coverage, suppresses critical coverage, or earns editorial endorsement.

Sponsored content is always labeled

Any content for which a third party has paid, or which was created in partnership with an advertiser, is clearly labeled "Sponsored" at the top of the article, in a way no reasonable reader could miss. Sponsored content is visually distinguished from editorial content. It is written to be genuinely useful, but it does not carry the same independent editorial endorsement as our journalism, and the label makes that clear.

Affiliate links

Some articles contain affiliate links — links to retailers or services from which Meridian may earn a commission if you make a purchase. Where affiliate links are present, the article includes a clear disclosure near the top. Affiliate relationships never determine what we recommend: our reviews and comparisons reflect genuine editorial judgment, and we disclose the relationship so you can judge our recommendations with full information. The price you pay is not affected.

What we will not run

We do not accept advertising that:

  • Misrepresents what is being sold, uses deceptive claims, or mimics editorial content, navigation, or system messages.
  • Encourages invalid clicks — we never ask readers to click ads, and no feature of the site incentivizes ad clicks.
  • Promotes scams, malware, counterfeit goods, or illegal products and services.
  • Interferes with reading — no pop-unders, no forced redirects, no overlays that cover content, no auto-refreshing ad units.
  • Targets children inappropriately or promotes age-restricted products to general audiences.

We reserve the right to reject or remove any advertisement that does not meet these standards, regardless of revenue impact.

Ad placement standards

Advertisements appear in clearly defined slots — header, in-article, sidebar, and footer positions — and are visually identifiable as advertising. Ads never appear on empty pages, thin pages, administrative pages, or pages whose primary purpose is displaying ads. Content remains the purpose of the site; advertising supports it, not the other way around.

No guarantees about ad platforms

Meridian is built to meet the published quality and policy requirements of major advertising platforms, including clear navigation, original content, transparency pages, and responsible ad placement. However, we make no claim and no guarantee regarding approval by any advertising network. Approval decisions rest solely with the respective platforms and their review processes at the time of application.

Questions

For advertising inquiries, contact us through our contact page using the "Advertising" topic. For questions about this policy, write to hello@meridian.press.