Vol. I No. 1Published by Northbank Media Independent · No advertising network
Commercial · Men's Skin

Sponsorship and rates

Published rates, published conditions. A publication that asks readers to check what clinics charge should say what it charges.

The short answer

Men's Skin is funded by sponsorship of named positions and by newsletter placements, at published rates. A sponsor buys a labelled position on the page. A sponsor does not buy coverage, links inside editorial, inclusion in any list, or sight of anything before publication. Rates are published below so that both readers and prospective sponsors can see them, which is the point of publishing them at all.

1. The model, in one paragraph

This publication takes no advertising network money, runs no pay per click advertising, sells no links and publishes no sponsored articles. It is funded by a small number of clearly labelled positions and by placements in the weekly briefing email, sold at the published rates below. The rates are public because a publication that asks readers to check what clinics charge should be willing to say what it charges itself.

2. The positions

PositionDetailRate
Front page sponsor The single sponsor position in the right rail of the front page, above the fold on desktop. One sponsor at a time, labelled Sponsor, visually distinct from editorial. Calendar month, exclusive£1,200 / month
Section sponsor One position on a section index page and on every article within that section. Six sections available, one sponsor per section. Calendar month, one sponsor per section£600 / month
Weekly briefing placement One labelled placement per issue in the email newsletter. Maximum one per issue, never more. Per issue£350 / issue
Briefing series Four consecutive weekly briefing placements. Four issues£1,200
Recruitment and trade notices Clinical, trade and training notices in a dedicated block on the relevant section index. 30 days£180

Rates are exclusive of VAT where applicable, invoiced in advance, and fixed for the duration of a booked period. There is no auction, no dynamic pricing and no negotiated exception, because a rate that varies by negotiation is not a published rate.

3. What a sponsorship does not include

  • Any editorial coverage, mention or reference.
  • Any link inside the body of an article.
  • Inclusion in any list, comparison or assessment.
  • Sight of, influence over, or approval of any article before publication.
  • Notice of forthcoming articles that mention a sponsor's sector.
  • Removal or amendment of published material.

If a sponsor requests any of the above, the request will be declined, and if it is pressed we will publish the fact that it was made. That is a standing policy rather than a threat, and it is the only sanction a publication of this size has.

4. Who we will accept

Sponsors must be able to satisfy the following, and we check before invoicing.

  • Where the sponsor is a clinical provider, the practitioners named must appear on the relevant public professional register, and the provider must be registered with the appropriate regulator where the activity is regulated.
  • Advertising must comply with UK rules, which includes not naming a prescription only medicine in consumer facing material.
  • No guaranteed outcomes, no before and after imagery without stated conditions, and no pressure selling in the creative.
  • No products making medical claims without the corresponding regulatory status.

We will decline sponsorship from providers whose public advertising does not meet those conditions, including where the rate has already been agreed.

5. The weekly briefing

The briefing goes out once a week. It carries one lead piece, a short list of what has been published, and at most one labelled placement. It has no tracking pixels beyond delivery confirmation, and the subscriber list is not shared, sold, rented or made available for lookalike targeting under any circumstances.

Sponsors receive delivery and click figures for their own placement and nothing else. They do not receive subscriber data, segments or counts by category.

6. How positions are labelled

Every paid position carries the word Sponsor, is set in a distinct visual treatment from editorial, and sits inside a ruled box that does not resemble an article. Nothing paid for appears in the body of an article, in a headline, in a standfirst or in an index listing. A reader should never have to work out whether something was paid for.

7. Enquiries

Sponsorship enquiries go through the contact page, selecting the sponsorship option. We will confirm availability, the checks above, and the invoicing arrangement. We do not run a brokered or reseller channel, and we do not accept bookings placed by third party link building agencies on behalf of undisclosed clients.

Our full commercial rules sit in editorial standards, and the criteria we would apply to any assessment are in how we assess.

No commercial links on this page

This article contains no affiliate links, no sponsored placements and no links to any commercial product, brand, retailer or clinic. Nobody paid for it, nobody previewed it and nobody outside the editorial desk saw it before publication. Our editorial standards set out the three archive articles that are the single disclosed exception on this site, none of which is this one.

Nothing here is medical advice. For your own skin, speak to a pharmacist, a GP or a dermatologist.

The weekly briefing

One email a week on male skin. Nothing else, and no list sharing of any kind.

One email a week. One lead piece, what has been published, and at most one labelled placement. Never sold, never shared.