Despite pressure from Madison Avenue, the American Society of Magazine Editors will uphold its policy against tying advertising to editorial content, the Wall Street Journal today reported. Stephen Baker of BusinessWeek wonders if the ASME made the right decision.

Here’s my take: Advertising messages are rapidly becoming part of the fabric of movies, television shows and video games. It’s inevitable that it will happen with print.

And with the popularity of Lucky, a shopping magazine that’s been named Advertising Age’s magazine of the year, who’s to say that’s not what people want? (Personally, I’d be in favor of the ASME burning all of my wife’s copies of Lucky — but it won’t change anything.)

Meanwhile, in the world of celebrity mags, we have OK! teaming up with celebrities and their publicists, giving them big money for exclusives and pre-approval on stories.

The walls are crumbling. Audiences will decide what information they consider credible and what sources they trust — with or without the ASME’s attempts to referee the marketplace.

Technorati tags: Journalism, PR, Public Relations, Marketing