Content Policy and Agreement: For Advertising Partners and Magazine Editorial Content

Content Policies for Advertising and Editorial Content

Content Policy Agreement

Our Mission

To empower people to use their God-given gifts.

Introduction

City Lifestyle produces community-based content across the country. Our content is for, by and about the residents of each community focusing on family features, local businesses and community events. Our goal is to connect local, reputable businesses to readers in need of their services.

It is also important to us that we remain respectful of the knowledge that our readers did not subscribe to our publication. Our users can consistently count on our content to be inspiring, instructional and uplifting. To that end, we do not entertain content within our advertisements or our editorial that could be construed as divisive, exclusionary or unnecessarily graphic. As we are a national organization that relies heavily on scalable processes to ensure continued growth, our stance on certain content policies cannot be reflective of a local community's leanings, but, instead, must account for the national tone or narrative around a specific topic.

The following document is an ever-evolving collection of our current content policies regarding a variety of topics. There is no distinction regarding the application to advertising versus editorial. These policies can be universally applied to all content submissions.

Polarizing and Divisive Topics

City Lifestyle is a family-friendly platform and we endeavor to provide our readers with content that is inspiring, instructional and uplifting. As such, we review all content submissions to ensure that our products can stay true to our company mission statement, do not contain divisive content of any kind and focus only on the good news of local communities and the world. We want to be certain that the messages in submissions are well received, so we reserve the right to request edits to or remove any content deemed inappropriate for publishing.

Content subjects that may be flagged for edits or removal include (but, are not limited to):

Casinos, Clubs and Other Addictive Behaviors

City Lifestyle does not condone facilities that construct an environment that actively works to manipulate the public into engaging in — and creating a recurring lifestyle around — addictive and potentially damaging behavior.

However, we understand that some of these organizations offer other services, activities and events that the community may enjoy. As such, contracted partnerships can be arranged as long as commonly addictive pastimes — such as gambling or public intoxication — are not promoted. The use of the term “casino” must be restricted to the physical address, proper name of the establishment and/or logo only.

In addition, other addictive behaviors should be sensitively portrayed through a lens of moderation — interpretation of which is up to the discretion of City Lifestyle.

Other content that may be denied on the basis of our Casinos, Clubs and Other Addictive Behaviors policy include (but, are not limited to):

Dispensaries
Cigarettes
Vaping
Smoking accessories
Drug paraphernalia

Lawyers

We recognize that there is a lot of revenue opportunity in partnerships with legal representatives and firms. While there are currently no restrictions on the law specialties that can advertise within our print publications, not all of those specialties are appropriate for in-depth coverage in our print content that is mailed directly to reader’s homes. The following subjects do not align with our efforts to deliver the good news of communities directly to doorsteps:

Divorce
Sex trafficking or sex-related legal matters
Criminal prosecution
Drug- or alcohol-related legal matters
Immigration law
Criminal law in any capacity

However, we also provide our clients with an elite digital marketing platform on citylifestyle.com and our premium partners have the ability to publish self-authored articles directly to their personalized business pages. These digital-only articles are a great way for our clients to share their realm of expertise with readers who are specifically looking for more information regarding their speciality services. Please note, it is still our practice to review these articles prior to publishing to ensure that they don’t violate our other policies, such as our policies around Social Issues or Triggering Content

Marijuana (Medical and Recreational) and CBD

Until a time when the use of medical and recreational marijuana are universally legalized, federally regulated, and the social tone regarding the topic is deemed to be one of acceptance and support, City Lifestyle will not advertise the sale or use of marijuana or partner with organizations who participate in it’s sale and distribution regardless of the legality on the state level.

We will allow advertisements and content around the uses and sale of CBD oil. While also made from hemp, we have determined that the legality and tone around this particular topic is considered relatively acceptable on a national scale. However, in order to avoid any association with the marijuana industry until a time when our stance on marijuana changes, the following content guidelines must be followed when including content about CBD and hemp-based products:

We will allow small graphic representations of cannabis leaves in conjunction with clearly marked hemp products on the labels of product shots
We will not allow photography of cannabis leaves -— hemp or otherwise — in their natural, dried or raw form
We will not include company logos if they include depictions of hemp leaves In addition, at this time City Lifestyle will not allow the advertisement of Delta-8 Tetrahydrocannabinol (Delta-8 THC) or other products that the FDA has formally issued warnings against.

Medical Content

While the content and services that our advertising partners in the medical field can provide may be relevant to our audience, our print publications are not necessarily the place for in-depth or graphic medical information. We reserve the right to request edits or reject medical content including, but not limited to:

Content about genitalia in all its forms
Sex, sexual performance or sexuality
Infections, visual or descriptive
Unflattering before/after images
Imagery that violates our Nudity, Adult Novelty + Sexualized Content clause
Graphic procedural representations including syringes puncturing skin

A general rule of thumb regarding medical content in our printed publications is that specific services can be listed in advertisements or print articles, but imagery or in-depth explanations and/or descriptions around various procedures or inflictions will be heavily regulated or outright removed.

However, we also provide our clients with an elite digital marketing platform on citylifestyle.com and our premium partners have the ability to publish self-authored articles directly to their personalized business pages. These digital-only articles are a great way for our clients to share their realm of expertise with readers who are specifically looking for more information regarding their medical services. Please note, it is still our practice to review these articles prior to publishing to ensure that they don’t violate our other policies, such as our policies around Social Issues or Triggering Content.

Nudity, Adult Novelty + Sexualized Content

We restrict the display of nudity, sexual activity or sexualized content (including many displays of physical affection) because some people in our community may be sensitive to this type of content. Additionally, we default to removing sexualized imagery to avoid commentary on common social issues and to prevent the sharing of non-consensual or underage content. This includes overtly sexual poses, common displays of sexual affection (like kissing) or sensitively revealing outfits even if taken in a public forum, such as on a public beach.

In all imagery:

Underwear, lingerie, or its likeness will not be shown on models
There should be the intention of full coverage of the buttocks and breasts
Environment is key and attire should showcase a positive, family-friendly lifestyle in an appropriate environment rather than focusing on body objectification. For example, models in swimwear should be in an aquatic environment, not a studio setting.

Our nudity policies have become more nuanced over time. We understand that nudity can be shared for a variety of reasons, including to raise awareness about a cause or for educational or medical reasons. Where such intent is clear, we may make allowances for the content. For example, while we may restrict images of individuals in bedrooms wearing conservative lingerie or undergarments, we may allow photographs of paintings, sculptures, and other public art that depict nude figures. In all cases, cover imagery will be held to stricter standards regarding this policy.

Other content that may be denied on the basis of our Nudity, Adult Novelty and Sexualized Content clause include (but, are not limited to):

Before and after imagery of medical or cosmetic procedures
Underwear, lingerie and some sleepwear
Presence of by-products of sexual activity
Sexual stimulation on your body or the body of another, even if above or under clothing
Use of adult novelty toys, even if above or under clothing
Intentional fetish content of any kind

Polarizing, Unorthodox or Unsubstantiated Content

Additional industries or topics that may be denied include, but are not limited to:

Gun Laws
Family Planning
Sex and Sexuality
Social Reform
Race Relations
Occult Content (Psychics, Mediums, Astrology, etc)
Diet Plans, Products or Pills
Multi-level marketing products of any kind
Novelty or fetish shops
Claims around “healing” that are not substantiated by the national medical community at large
Services that claim metaphysical or spiritual results for payment

Weapons, Ammunition or Explosives

While we respect the U.S. second amendment right to bear arms, we acknowledge that content around weapons, ammunition or explosives can be triggering to victims of gun violence and combat veterans. For this reason, we reserve the right to request edits or remove content in accordance with the following guidelines.

Content can promote or include:

Safety courses for firearm training or licenses as well as books and videos about firearm safety
Plastic guns, swords and toy weapons
Shooting in a sport setting, including hunting unendangered species
The legal buying and selling of guns and accessories at a licensed retailor

Content can not promote or include:

Gun laws, gun advocacy or reform groups, including logos
Explosives, excluding fireworks for celebratory purposes
Reviews of firearms or any other prohibited weapons or weapon modifications
Gun shows for the purpose of buying or selling
Imagery of weaponry pointed at the viewer or another individual

Politics

Do not advertise or profile actively campaigning candidates for any kind of public office role including, but not limited to judgeships, union representatives and mayoral candidates. Highlighting currently-serving elected representatives may be done from a human-interest perspective as long as the individual is not considered nationally divisive and if political platforms, alienating beliefs, proposed plans and proposed projects are not discussed.

In addition, there should be no mention in editorial content or advertisements regarding upcoming elections, ballots, amendments or propositions.

Social Issues

We aim to be inclusive of all lifestyles and backgrounds and believe that categorizing content or events by topics such as race, sexuality, gender identity, religion, etc, cultivates an environment of exclusion. As such we reserve the right to request edits to or reject or remove content that focuses too heavily on trending social issues or movements as worthy as they may be of spotlighting.

Weddings

While many lifestyle-focused magazines devote entire issues to wedding themes, we find that this can be a polarizing topic for our readers. There are so many traditions, faiths and beliefs associated with the union of marriage that we aim to be very thoughtful in our approach to covering the subject. Incorporating singular articles about wedding styling, wedding venues or similar trends can be accepted within reason. Similarly, advertising partnerships with event venues, caterers, photographers and similar services who may specialize in wedding events is also acceptable as long as they are in alignment with the other appropriateness standards referenced in this document.

We cannot, however, support full issues devoted to the theme or subject matter of weddings. Being cognizant of the fact that our readers have not subscribed or purchased our publication, we find that wedding issues are a micro topic that will exclude the majority of our readers as only a small fraction of our audience may be in the midst of planning a wedding. In addition, as we outlined above, the devotion of a full issue to the topic of weddings and unions increases the likelihood that content will wade into a divisive or polarizing territory.

Business Content

In an effort to provide our readers with authentic content that is inspiring, instructional and uplifting we reserve the right to request edits, remove or apply a standard “sponsored” tag to content that appears to solely be promotional or profit-driven in nature. Telling our readers about these kinds of relationships is important because it helps keep our recommendations honest and truthful, and that transparency goes a long way in maintaining our position as an expert in our sphere of influence.

Branded Editorial Content

Branded artwork and content is accepted through our premium business accounts and all associated content will default to publishing with a standard “sponsored” tag. In addition, branded content can be featured in our print publications — and subsequently online around the first of the month — in association with a signed and approved advertising contract. We define branded content as a submission that features or is influenced by a personal business or business partner for an exchange of value.

Business or branded articles should also go beyond an ‘about’ or announcement-type of writeup. We’re looking for the story behind the businesses or organization, and readers should walk away from the article with new valuable knowledge. Whether that’s something that moved them, helpful tips or inspirational projects, it should be more than the basic info.

When mentioning a company in a print article, you’re encouraged to select that company in the ‘company’ section of the assignment screen, which will add a link to their City Lifestyle business directory listing when the article pushes to the website.

Crowdsourcing + Donations

We understand that many of you may be working on worthy passion projects and wish to share these innovations with our users. We love to hear about what you are working on, but also want our readers to feel free of consumer pressures while interacting with our media platforms. You may not explicitly seek or request donations from our readers and users unless on behalf of an established nonprofit organization. Sharing information about crowd-funded or donation-dependent content may be done in the following ways:

You may include information about your endeavor in your Publisher letter as long as guidelines outlined in our Product Promotion and Self-Promotion sections are respected.
You may share information with our readers about your project in the form of an article and include a link where additional information can be found offsite. We reserve the right to request edits to or reject content based upon the guidelines outlined in this document. Please remember that our goal is for content to be inspiring, instructional and uplifting.

Language + Quality

We have no desire to silence your creative voice, but we do wish to be mindful of the readability of our content. The following categorizations may result in minor edits by our team, a request for edits by you prior to publishing or removal of your content.

Before and After Imagery

Marketers, especially those in the health and beauty sectors, often use ‘before and after’ photos of subjects to provide a visual representation of the effectiveness of their products. For best practices, we highly recommend using after-only photos in print ads and providing a link or QR code to before photos. This helps to drive traffic to client websites while our ad and editorial content can stay conducive to the aesthetic of our brand. Generally, imagery depicting the upper thigh region, buttocks, stomach, and breast regions will be denied. In addition, imagery exemplifying extreme bodily conditions or disorders of any kind may also be denied.

Family-Friendly

Any wording that is not family-friendly may be altered or denied. This could be a play on words such as:

Knotty Rug – “We have been laid in every room in the house”

In addition, minors should not be depicted holding age-restricted products.

Personal Reflections

Articles should be objective content with a hyper-local angle geared toward lifestyle topics such as trends, helpful tips and inspirational projects. Our site is not aimed to explore content that contains details about your thoughts, feelings, memories or experiences, however entertaining, compassionate or significant they may be. Anecdotes or descriptions of a situation should serve an informational purpose that adds value to the article, such as briefly referencing a story with the intention of demonstrating or supporting a point you want to make. Content that tells a personal story about your life, friends or family, is driven by emotion or opinion, heavily relies on the first-person voice, or necessitates mentioning the names of people in narratives, may be considered personally reflective and result in a request for edits or removal of your content.

Hate Speech and Cruelty

We do not allow content that promotes violence or hatred against people based on characteristics like race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, disease, age, sexual orientation, gender, or gender identity.

We do not allow submissions or ambassador representatives that glorify, celebrate, downplay, or trivialize violence, suffering, abuse, or deaths of individuals or groups. We do not allow calls for intolerance, exclusion, or segregation based on protected characteristics, nor do we allow the glorification of groups which do any of the above.

Triggering Content

We restrict imagery, phrases, terminology, statements or content regarding (but not limited to) the following list of subjects because some people in our community may be sensitive to this type of content and consider it triggering for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other anxiety disorders:

Sexual Assault
Abuse
Child abuse/pedophilia/incest
Animal cruelty or animal death
Self-harm and suicide
Eating disorders, body hatred, and fat phobia
Violence and gun shootings including imagery of active shooters
Pornographic content
Kidnapping and abduction
Death or dying
Pregnancy/Childbirth
Miscarriages/Abortion
Blood and other medical procedures
Mental illness and ableism
Racism and racial slurs
Sexism and misogyny
Classism
Hateful language directed at religious groups (e.g., Islamophobia, antisemitism)
Transphobia and trans misogyny
Homophobia and heterosexism

Profanity

Language or words considered profane will be changed to asterisks when the intended meaning aligns with the other clauses outlined in this document. Excessive profanity may result in a request for edits or removal of content.

Regulated Goods

To encourage safety and compliance with common legal restrictions, we prohibit attempts by individuals, manufacturers, and retailers to purchase, sell, or trade non-medical drugs, pharmaceutical drugs, and marijuana. We also prohibit the gifting, exchange and transfer of firearms, including firearm parts or ammunition. Some of these items are not regulated everywhere; however, because of the borderless nature of our community, we try to enforce our policies as consistently as possible. Firearm stores and online retailers may promote items available for sale off of our services as long as those retailers comply with all applicable laws and regulations. Regulated goods that are not prohibited by our Community Standards may be subject to our more stringent Commerce Policies.

Do not submit:

Firearms content that:

Attempts to buy, sell, trade, donate, gift or solicit firearms, firearm parts, ammunition, explosives, or lethal enhancements between private individuals.
Provides access to 3D printing or computer aided manufacturing instructions for firearms or firearms parts even when posted by brick and mortar stores, brands and legitimate websites.

Non-medical drug content that:

Attempts to buy, sell, trade, donate, gift, or solicit non-medical drugs
Admits to buying or trading non-medical drugs by the creator of the content by themselves or through others
Admits to personal use without acknowledgment of or reference to recovery, treatment, or other assistance to combat usage
Promotes, encourages, coordinates or provides instructions for use or make of non-medical drugs

Marijuana or pharmaceutical drug content that:

Attempts to buy, sell, trade, donate, gift, or solicit marijuana or pharmaceutical drugs

Alcohol or tobacco content that:

Attempts to buy, sell, trade, donate or gift alcohol or tobacco products between private individuals

Endangered species content that:

Attempts to buy, sell, trade, donate, gift, or solicit endangered species or their parts
Admits to poaching, buying or trading of endangered species and their parts
Depicts poaching of endangered species and their parts
Speaks positively of the poaching of endangered species and their parts
Promotes, encourages, or coordinates the poaching of endangered species and their parts

Non-endangered species content that:

Attempts to buy, sell or trade live non-endangered animals between private individuals

Diet product content:

About weight loss that contains a miracle claim with a commercial offer

Spam

We work hard to limit the spread of spam because we do not want to allow content that is designed to deceive, or that attempts to mislead users to increase viewership. This content creates a negative user experience and detracts from people's ability to engage authentically with us. We also aim to prevent people from abusing our platforms, products, or features to artificially increase viewership or distribute content en masse for commercial gain.

Do not:

Submit content or create accounts either manually or automatically, at very high frequencies.
Attempt to or successfully sell, buy, or exchange site privileges or product features except in the case of clearly identified branded content, as defined by our Branded Content clause.
Require or claim that users are required to engage with content (e.g. liking, sharing) before they are able to view or interact with promised content.
Encourage likes, shares, follows, clicks, or the use of apps or websites as outlined in our Product Promotion and Self Promotion Policy.

Directing users through the deceptive or misleading use of URLs, defined as:

Cloaking: Presenting different content to users.
Misleading content: Content contains a link that promises one type of content but delivers something substantially different.
Deceptive Pop-up websites: Websites that require an action (captcha, watch ad, click here) in order to view the expected landing page content and the domain name of the URL changes after the required action is complete.
Like /Share-Gating: Landing pages that require users to like, share, or otherwise engage with content before gaining access to off-CityLifestyle.com content.
Deceptive Landing Page Functionality: Websites that have a misleading user interface, which results in accidental traffic being generated (pop-ups/unders, clickjacking, etc.) ○ Impersonation: The website pretends to be a reputable brand or service by using a name, domain, or content featuring typos, misspellings, or other means to impersonate well-known brands www.faceb00k.com, www.city_lifestyle.com, using a landing page similar to another, trusted site to mislead visitors.
And other behaviors that are substantially similar to those listed above.

Manipulated and Ai Media

Media, including image, audio, or video, can be edited in a variety of ways. In many cases, these changes are benign, like a filter effect on a photo. In other cases, the manipulation isn’t apparent and could mislead. We choose not to include video or photography that is the product of artificial intelligence or machine learning as part of our editorial content as it is contrary to our goal of providing authentic, hyper-local community subject matter for our readers.

In addition, we aim to remove this category of manipulated media across all our media channels when:

Video or photography is the product of artificial intelligence that is meant to realistically represent a human being
Video or photography has been edited or synthesized, beyond adjustments for clarity or quality, in ways that are not apparent to an average person, and would likely mislead an average person to believe that a subject of the video said words or acted in a way that they did not
Video or photography is the product of artificial intelligence or machine learning, including deep learning techniques (e.g., a technical deepfake), that merges, combines, replaces, and/or superimposes content onto a video, creating a video that appears authentic.

All other instances of manipulated media are subject to interpretation by our quality control team and may result in a request for edits or removal of content.

Violence + Incitement

In our hope to provide our readers with inspirational, instructional and uplifting content we reserve the right to reject content or terminate ambassador profiles that threaten or call for violence. We try to consider the language and context in order to distinguish casual statements from content that constitutes a credible threat.

Dangerous Individuals or Organizations

In an effort to prevent and disrupt real-world harm, we do not allow any organizations or individuals that proclaim a violent mission or are engaged in violence to have a presence on City Lifestyle. This includes organizations or individuals involved in the following:

Terrorist activity
Organized hate
Mass murder (including attempts) or multiple murder
Human trafficking
Organized violence or criminal activity

We will also remove content that expresses support or praise for groups, leaders, or individuals involved in these activities.

Fraud + Deception

In an effort to prevent and disrupt harmful or fraudulent activity, we remove content aimed at deliberately deceiving people to gain an unfair advantage or deprive another of money, property, or legal right.