Editorial policy
CIOPages publishes Buyer Guides, Insights and a Directory for enterprise technology executives. We also sell labeled Spotlight listings beside the Buyer Guides, bylined articles in the Executive Forum, and Product Showcase pages, which are sponsored pages about one product. All three are kept separate from our editorial work, and labeled.
Last updated November 2026
Section 1
Editorial independence
Editors decide what a Buyer Guide says
Editors choose which vendors a Buyer Guide lists and how it describes them, weighing several market signals. The list is alphabetical.
Spotlight cards and Featured Vendor bands are labeled advertising
Spotlight Listings and Featured Vendor placements are advertising. Each block is labeled “Paid placements · independent of CIOPages editorial” and sits beside the analysis, not inside it.
Paying does not change how we cover a vendor
A vendor who buys a Spotlight card, a Forum package or a Showcase gets no softer assessment and no better position. A vendor who has never paid us is covered on the same terms.
Paying does not change your position in search
Directory search ordering ignores what a vendor has bought.
An editor reviews every change a vendor submits
Claimed vendors can correct their own record. An editor reviews each change before it goes live and removes promotional language.
How we compile, source and correct Directory profiles is in How we build Directory listings.
Section 2
How paid placements work
A Spotlight listing does not offer an editorial mention in the Buyer Guide. Editorial decisions are made independently and cannot be influenced by vendors.
Labeled as advertising
Every Spotlight card and Featured Vendor band says it is a paid placement. Its links carry rel="sponsored".
Beside the analysis, never inside it
Placements sit in their own blocks. The vendor list in a guide is alphabetical, chosen by our editors, and not for sale.
Built from the reviewed listing
A card shows the company's logo and the summary line from its Directory listing, which an editor reviews.
Product Showcase pages are labeled sponsored content
A Showcase is a page about one product, in the vendor's words or written by us from their material. It is labeled “Sponsored Content, not CIOPages Editorial Coverage.” at the top, kept out of search results, and its links carry rel="sponsored". We approve the copy before it is published. It names no competitors.
Vendor documents are labeled as theirs
A claimed listing can offer up to 3 documents and a video. We review them before they appear, but we don't write them or verify their claims. A reader who requests a document is told the vendor receives their details.
Prices and how to order are on Spotlight pricing and Product Showcase.
Section 3
Guest contributions
Guest articles run in the CIOPages Executive Forum, a paid annual membership for senior technology leaders, including executives at technology vendors. Agencies can apply for a client, under the client executive’s own byline. The Forum is separate from our editorial coverage. We review members before charging them, edit every piece, and label each one a Paid Guest Contribution. Links in Forum articles carry rel="sponsored". Membership does not buy a place in a Buyer Guide, or editorial coverage. A page about a vendor’s own product is a Product Showcase.
What doesn’t work here
- Bylines where the named executive didn't write it and the views aren't theirs
- Pieces that depend on getting a link to a product, client or campaign
- Anything already published elsewhere, or syndicated across several sites
- AI-written drafts sent as original work
- A pitch that recommends your own product
Section 4
Links, PR & coverage
Your listing already links to you, free
Every Directory profile carries the company website, claimed or not.
Our editors choose the links in our own writing
Inside articles, Buyer Guides and glossary entries, links go where the point being made leads: standards bodies, vendor documentation, original research. Those are editorial calls and they are not for sale.
Advertising links are marked as advertising
Links on paid placements, Forum articles and Showcase pages carry rel="sponsored". Links on Directory profiles carry rel="nofollow".
We don't trade links
We do not reply to link exchange requests.
Paid guest contributions are labeled, and their links are marked
Executive Forum articles sit in a section separate from our editorial coverage, and each one is labeled a Paid Guest Contribution at the top of the page. You can link to your own site twice in an article: once in the author bio, once in the body. Both carry rel="sponsored". Membership doesn't reach links inside our own writing, or how we evaluate a vendor.
If you want to be seen on a Buyer Guide
A Spotlight listing is a labeled card beside the Buyer Guide for your category: $499 a year for the first guide, including your claimed Directory listing, and $249 for each additional guide. It does not offer an editorial mention in the Buyer Guide.
We don't sell newsletter sponsorships or webinars.
See open slotsSection 5
Sourcing
- A figure, survey result, market estimate, ranking or finding we attribute to someone links to the page that published it, preferably the original publisher rather than a page quoting them.
- If we cannot find the original source, or it says something different, we leave the claim out.
- Worked examples, sample figures and rules of thumb are presented as such, not as findings.
- Every article is checked automatically before publication, and an unlinked statistic, ranking or named-source claim blocks it.
- An article shows an “Updated” date only when its content changed in substance, not for a typo or formatting fix.
Section 6
Corrections
Corrections are free, we accept them from anyone, and they are never tied to a purchase. Send the URL, the specific error, and a source we can check. We look at it within five business days.
What we’ll correct
- Factual errors: wrong capability, wrong pricing model, wrong integration, wrong owner
- Facts that have gone stale after a rename, an acquisition, a funding round or a discontinued product
- A category that's putting you in front of the wrong buyers
- Broken or redirected links to your site
- Anything we've misquoted or credited to the wrong person
What we won’t change
- Take down an accurate assessment because it isn't flattering
- Rewrite our analysis to match a positioning deck
- Drop a competitor from a guide, or move one to your advantage
- Swap a factual description for approved marketing language
- Take a page down in exchange for a purchase, or leave one up in exchange for one
Prices and how to order: Spotlight pricing · Executive Forum pricing · Product Showcase