Advertising & Sponsored Content

MFN accepts advertising, including sponsored articles. This page explains exactly what that means, because a label is only useful if the reader knows what it stands for.

What a Company Spotlight is

A Company Spotlight is a commercial placement. The company being written about has paid for the placement, or is affiliated with this publication, or both. It is not independent editorial reporting, and it was not assigned because our newsroom judged the subject newsworthy.

Spotlights run under the “MFN Staff” byline rather than an individual reporter’s name. No reporter’s personal credibility is attached to a paid article.

How it is labeled

Every sponsored article carries all of the following, on the article page itself:

• A bordered label reading “Company Spotlight · Sponsored” directly above the headline — before the reader encounters any of the article’s claims.
• A full disclosure statement beside the byline, naming the paying or affiliated company and stating that the content is commercial.
• A statement of what we did and did not verify, including whether figures are company-reported.

Away from the article page, every teaser, index entry and related-story link for a sponsored article is badged “Sponsored.” Sponsored articles are excluded from the front-page lead and feature slots, which carry independent editorial only.

In our structured data, sponsored articles are typed as a generic Article with an explicit sponsor rather than as a NewsArticle, and outbound links to the advertiser are marked rel="sponsored nofollow" so a paid placement passes no search ranking benefit.

Why we label it this way

A generic notice in the footer is not disclosure. A reader who arrives at a single article from a search result or a shared link never sees the footer of the site, and by the time they reach the bottom of the page they have already read the claims. Disclosure that appears after the persuasion has happened is decoration.

So we put the label where the decision is made: above the headline, on the page itself, before the argument starts. The reader can then discount the article as heavily as they like — which is their right, and the entire point.

What we will not do

• We do not allow advertisers to review, approve or edit independent editorial coverage of themselves.
• We do not remove or soften an unfavorable editorial article because the subject is an advertiser.
• We do not publish a sponsored article without the label, at any price.
• We do not repeat an advertiser’s unaudited performance claims in our own voice; they are attributed as company-reported, in a sponsored article as much as in a reported one.
• We do not accept sponsorship of our corrections, standards or policy pages.

Affiliated companies

HL Hunt Financial is affiliated with this publication. Articles about it disclose that affiliation by name. An affiliate receives no editorial advantage: the same labeling, the same attribution of unverified claims, and the same exclusion from editorial slots apply.

Advertising enquiries

Advertising is handled entirely separately from the newsroom. Enquiries go to advertising@marketfinancenews.example, and our commercial team cannot commit editorial coverage as part of any deal.