Advertising Terms

Last updated: September 2026

These are the terms that govern advertising, sponsorship, and paid listings with Modern Public Fleet. They are separate from our Terms and Conditions, which govern use of the site by readers.

1. When these terms apply

These terms apply to every advertising, sponsorship, and directory listing order placed with Modern Public Fleet. Placing an order means the advertiser and its agency accept them.

If a signed insertion order or media agreement says something different, that document governs for the deal it covers, and these terms fill in everything it does not address. A purchase order, vendor portal registration, or supplier terms document sent with payment does not change these terms, whatever it says on it, unless we have signed it.

2. What these terms cover

These terms apply to:

• display advertising on modernpublicfleet.com
• sponsorship of The Sightline newsletter
• sponsored articles and other clearly labeled sponsored content
• sponsored resources and the leads generated by them
• paid listings in the Public Fleet Solutions Guide
• event and webinar promotion
• SourceLight lead generation, except where its own agreement says otherwise

SourceLight is sold under its own signed agreement, and where the two disagree that agreement controls. These terms name it so a reader knows it exists.

3. Orders

An order becomes binding when we confirm it in writing. Space held verbally or by email while a proposal is under discussion is not reserved and can be sold to someone else.

An agency placing an order on behalf of an advertiser is responsible for that order alongside the advertiser. Both can be invoiced, and payment by one settles it for both.

4. Materials

Creative, copy, logos, and any other material must reach us by the deadline in the order. We will give the specifications in writing when the order is confirmed.

If material arrives late or does not meet the specifications, we will do what we reasonably can to run the placement as scheduled. If it cannot run, the placement is still billable. We do not hold inventory open past a deadline.

By sending us material, the advertiser confirms it owns or is licensed to use everything in it, including images, logos, trademarks, quotations, data, and the names or likenesses of any people in it, and that the claims in it are accurate and not misleading.

5. Editorial independence

Advertising does not buy editorial coverage, and it never has an influence on what we write about or how we write it. Nobody can pay to appear in an article, to be left out of one, to see one before publication, or to have one changed or removed.

Everything paid is labeled. Sponsored content carries a sponsored label, paid directory placements carry a partner mark, and press releases are published as press releases under the source’s own name. We do not run advertising that is designed to be mistaken for our own reporting.

This is not a courtesy and it is not negotiable per deal. It is the reason our audience is worth reaching.

6. What we will not run

We can decline or remove any advertising, sponsorship, or listing at our discretion, and we do not have to explain why. Reasons we would expect to use it include: claims we believe are false or unsubstantiated, material that disparages a named competitor, political and issue advertising, anything unlawful or discriminatory, anything that misrepresents who the advertiser is, and anything that interferes with how the site works for readers.

If we remove something already running for one of these reasons, we will refund the unrun portion. If we remove it because the advertiser broke these terms, we will not.

7. Delivery and performance

Audience figures and any volumes mentioned in a proposal are indications, not guarantees. Nothing is a guaranteed number unless the order says in writing that it is.

What we sell is a placement for a period: the advertising appears where the order says, for as long as the order says. We do not sell a number of impressions, and we do not report on impressions.

Placement positions are not exclusive unless the order says so. We may change the layout, design, templates, and navigation of our site and newsletter at any time, including where advertising appears in them.

If a placement does not run as ordered because of something on our side, tell us and we will extend it, run it again, or credit the affected part of the order, at our choice. That is the whole remedy.

8. Solutions Guide listings

Paid listings run for the term stated in the order, normally twelve months from the date the listing goes live.

What each tier includes is described on our listing packages page as it stands at the time of the order. We may add to a tier during a term. We will not take away a feature the advertiser paid for without offering a comparable replacement or a pro rata refund.

Two things a paid listing does not buy. It does not buy editorial coverage, per section 5. And it does not buy a search result: paid tiers are ordered ahead of free listings among results that already match what a reader searched for, and a paid listing does not appear for searches it is not relevant to.

Listing content is subject to our directory standards. We write and edit listing descriptions to those standards, we use the supplier’s own published facts, and we do not publish superlatives or claims a supplier has not published itself.

Paid listings do not renew automatically. We will contact the advertiser before the term ends. If a listing is not renewed it reverts to a free basic listing rather than being deleted.

9. Leads

This section applies to sponsored resources and any other product where we pass reader contact details to an advertiser.

A lead is a person who asked for the advertiser’s resource and gave us their details knowing the resource is sponsored. We pass on the fields the reader completed, and nothing else about them. We do not guarantee that any lead will respond, qualify, or buy.

The advertiser becomes independently responsible for the personal information in a lead the moment we deliver it, and by accepting delivery agrees that:

• it will contact those people only about the subject of the resource they requested and about closely related offerings
• it will honor an opt-out immediately, whoever receives it, and will accept opt-out and deletion requests we pass on within ten business days
• it will not sell, rent, trade, or otherwise pass the leads to anyone else
• it will not add the leads to an unrelated list, or to a list for a different brand it owns
• it will keep them only as long as it needs them for that purpose
• it will comply with the marketing and privacy laws that apply to it, including CAN-SPAM

We can stop delivering leads to an advertiser that does not do these things, and we will not refund placements stopped for that reason.

Lead-guarantee programs, where they are offered, cannot be cancelled once delivery has started.

10. Payment

Invoices are payable within 30 days of the invoice date.

We can suspend or stop placements for an advertiser whose account is overdue, and doing so does not cancel what is owed. An advertiser whose account is overdue is responsible for reasonable collection costs.

Rates and terms quoted in a proposal are good for 30 days.

11. Cancelling or changing an order

Cancellations must be in writing. Notice takes effect on the first day of the month after we receive it and then runs 30 days.

This governs display advertising, newsletter sponsorship, sponsored content and sponsored resources. The products below have their own rules:

• Event and webinar promotion: the cancellation terms are set in the order. We state them when the event is sold, because a dated event carries commitments made before it runs and those differ from a placement that can simply not appear. The rule above does not apply to them.
• SourceLight: governed by its own agreement, not by this section.
• Solutions Guide listings: not cancellable. The term runs to its end date, and the listing reverts to a free basic listing after it.
• Lead-guarantee programs: not cancellable once delivery starts, per section 9.

A placement can be moved once to a later date within the same order, if we agree in writing and the new date is within 120 days. A placement not run inside that window is billable.

Where a rate depended on volume or on a multi-placement commitment, cancelling part of it re-rates what actually ran. The delivered placements are re-priced at the rate that would have applied to that smaller quantity, and the difference between that and what was billed at the discounted rate becomes payable.

An example, because this is the clause most likely to be argued about: an advertiser commits to twelve months at a discounted rate, cancels after four, and the four months that ran are re-priced at the rate we would have quoted for four months. The discount was consideration for the commitment, so it does not survive the commitment being withdrawn.

12. Responsibility for what the advertising says

The advertiser is responsible for its own advertising. It will cover our costs, including reasonable legal fees, for any claim brought against us arising from material it supplied, from the claims made in that material, or from how it uses leads or reader information we deliver.

13. Limits

Our total liability for any order is limited to what the advertiser paid us for the placement the claim relates to. We are not liable for lost profits, lost business, or other indirect losses.

Neither side is responsible for a delay caused by something genuinely outside its control.

14. Other terms

Rates, packages, and these terms can change. A change does not affect an order already confirmed.

Neither side may transfer an order to someone else without the other’s written agreement, except as part of a sale of the whole business.

We may name an advertiser as an advertiser and show its logo in our own materials, unless the order says otherwise.

Pricing is confidential to the parties.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Colorado.

15. Contact

Questions about an order, an invoice, or these terms: advertise@modernpublicfleet.com

Modern Public Fleet, 210 5th St. Suite 200, Castle Rock, CO 80104