Groan.
The onslaught of holiday shopping stories has begun, and right out of the gate we have three today at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., and the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey that include an editor's note I've never seen before:
"This article is presented by American Express in support of Small Business Saturday. Be sure to patronize small businesses for your holiday shopping on Nov. 26."
Here's one of the Louisville stories. And here's the one at Asbury Park.
Is this part of a broader advertising revenue strategy across Gannett?
[Updated at 8:32 p.m. ET.] Indeed, it turns out this is part of a broader initiative that Chief Marketing Officer Maryam Banikarim highlighted in her November On the Road newsletter. Screenshot detail, below:
Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
The onslaught of holiday shopping stories has begun, and right out of the gate we have three today at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., and the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey that include an editor's note I've never seen before:
"This article is presented by American Express in support of Small Business Saturday. Be sure to patronize small businesses for your holiday shopping on Nov. 26."
Here's one of the Louisville stories. And here's the one at Asbury Park.
Is this part of a broader advertising revenue strategy across Gannett?
[Updated at 8:32 p.m. ET.] Indeed, it turns out this is part of a broader initiative that Chief Marketing Officer Maryam Banikarim highlighted in her November On the Road newsletter. Screenshot detail, below:
Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
I thought they did this last year too Jim. If not maybe the year before.
ReplyDeleteDisgusting. Just when one thinks that they can't turn it into any more of a vanilla-flavored advertising rag any more than they have, or that they tried a strategy, saw it fail and have learned anything from it. GCI is as usual totally out of touch with economic reality, including obviously its own.
ReplyDeleteYes. They are doing it everywhere now. This is tip of massive iceberg.
ReplyDeleteYes, they also have asked employees to like the local Facebook page for this.
ReplyDeleteWho, exactly, is directing readers to do the following?
ReplyDelete"Be sure to patronize small businesses for your holiday shopping on Nov. 26."
Is this the newsroom? If so, who -- an editor? Which one? And how can that be appropriate?
Or is it the advertising department making this commandment? If so, why is that message appearing in the news columns?
Hardly any journalists left, but plenty of room for advertorial. Death spiral continues. Only a few will survive, like NYT, with actual journalism that people are willing to pay for.
ReplyDeleteGroan indeed. Everyday on this blog there's more evidence of the erosion of standards, the desperate grasping for straws, as the death spiral continues.
ReplyDeleteI'd be good with this if it wasn't brought to me by American Express. No offense, but people in Louisville are pretty passionate about small business support. KEEP LOUISVILLE WEIRD.
ReplyDeleteAlso in Florida Today:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.floridatoday.com/article/20111110/BUSINESS/111110014/Find-unique-holiday-gifts-women-Space-Coast-small-merchants?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CHome%7Cp
and the Republic (with a "Sponsored" tag in the hed):
http://www.azcentral.com/business/consumer/articles/2011/11/10/20111110phoenix-area-merchants-sponsored.html
Thank goodness for a new revenue steam. These are the things that will add up to saving jobs.
ReplyDeleteHoo-boy.
ReplyDeleteReading these news briefs about small businesses in Louisville, Phoenix, Brevard, and Asbury Park, I'm led to several conclusions:
1. The format and tone of these items is so uniform across the four papers that it appears the reporters were given examples of how the items should read.
2. I wonder if these businesses were selected randomly by the reporters themselves -- or were they chosen from a pre-approved list? For example, are any of these businesses, in fact, American Express merchants?
By that, I mean readers who shop with these businesses using their Amex cards would be entitled to a $25 credit for any $25 or more spent. That, after all, is the gist of the Amex sponsorship for this nationwide event.
Told last minute by my ad manager that we had to sell it. Still no details.
ReplyDeleteAre they reporters at the papers or is it outside or marketing prepared copy?
ReplyDeleteAll four articles are written by freelancers with former ties to their newspapers. Asbury: Fraidy Reiss, former investigative reporter. Florida: Chris Kidler, former writer and editor. Louisville: Judith Egerton, former theater critic/arts reporter. Arizona: Lisa Nicita, former writer.
ReplyDeleteThe info that trickled down from the top is to do several stories that highlight small businesses (preferably ones that advertise) by writing some sort of profile. It's definitely ad driven and not a directive from the newsroom top head.
ReplyDeleteGCI continues to breach public trust with this blurring of the lines between ads and edit. Totally stupid and it feeds the cancer of content irrelevance. So long Frankie G, they've raped your newspaper company into oblivion.
ReplyDelete12:32 I've been given a copy of an internal Gannett document that says these aren't supposed to be just any small businesses, or any small businesses that may be advertisers.
ReplyDeleteThe document says these stories "will feature local small businesses that are American Express merchants in 15 Gannett markets."
I understand that to mean that these are small businesses that accept American Express cards.
I've sent a list of questions to a senior Gannett editor asking for clarification.
Isn't this kinda the exact example of what the whole 'verticals' idea is supposed to end up with? That's a serious question, because it seems to me that advertiser-driven content is the only endgame here.
ReplyDeleteLet's be brutally honest about newspapers. Going back to Ben Franklin's time, most papers were created to:
ReplyDelete1) Espouse a point of view. The OWNER'S.
2) Promote (or attack) candidates and parties.
3) Print government business. If you were on the right side of #2, you got the contract for #3.
4) Inform the populace.
Notice the order. It's not by accident. When did objectivity EVER define journalism for any length of time? There's nothing in the First Amendment that mentions truth or a vow of poverty.
All that said, the apparent lack of transparency in the AMEX campaign regarding local businesses who JUST MIGHT HAPPEN to take the American Express card is pathetic. But it's not criminal.
Look at your local travel section (if you still have a LOCAL travel section). Here in Phoenix, it's mostly "Special For The Republic" stories about San Diego and Vegas.
Newspapers are in a death spiral - we all know it. If something like this can slow or arrest the process, then great.
Just remember, newspapers are just like any other business. When transparency suits their purpose, you'll get it. Otherwise . . .
Remember the scene in "It's a Wonderful Life" where Jimmy Stewart's character sees what happens to Bedford Falls downtown if he'd never been born? The streets are filled with gambling halls and burlesque clubs.
ReplyDeleteThat's what happens to your local papers when Mr(s). Potter runs Gannett.
Anon said... "Thank goodness for a new revenue steam. These are the things that will add up to saving jobs."
ReplyDeleteEr, ah... I tried formulating some kind of response to the above comment. I failed.
I don't have a problem with this IF AND AS LONG AS stories carry some sort of disclaimer. This profile is sponsored by American express or some such blurb. It is a new revenue stream. It is the way of the new, somewhat brazen Gannett marketing dept. Get used to it. Resistance is futile.
ReplyDeleteExactly what Heather Frank tried to do at USA Today but failed, which led to her long overdue fall from grace. She couldn't sell stupid content ideas to marketers. This is just the latest flavor of the month that will eventually sour. Too bad sophisticated readers will be turned off and permanently away to higher caliber content elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteWhy cant the ad departments at Gannett properties just sell ads and keep from monkeying with editorial content?
Well said, 6:14am, appreciate the insights and reality check.
ReplyDelete9am - raise your hand if you ever caught this discussion - "We'd have an easier time selling this product it was a tabloid" a year later "We think advertisers would really like this as a broadsheet."
ReplyDeleterepeat as many times as necessary.
Look, as long as this program appears in Maryam's "On the Road" e-mail, I'm fine with it.
ReplyDeleteThat has become my Gannett guidepost.
To 9 a.m.
ReplyDeleteWhy can't editors just say no? What happened to integrity?
Anyone using the term revenue stream should be taken out and paddled.
ReplyDeleteThe Cincinnati Enquirer got into bed with Fifth Third Bank 5 or 6 years ago in a web venture, then hooked up with Christ Hospital in a web venture that is still active. The ventures run ads in the paper. The Enquirer is notoriously soft on Fifth Third, ignoring unethical business practices that are cited in lawsuits and laying off the SEC investigation of the bank. The publisher's husband used to work at Fifth Third and no doubt still has friends there.
ReplyDelete@1:12 p.m. Too true.
ReplyDeleteOur integrity went out the door when we started taking advertisers to the Bahamas.
ReplyDeleteWe had integrity?
ReplyDelete7:58 failed because when there is a rational, factual, relevant post you don't have the sticks to say amen. Lack of revenue will kill newspapers. Getting reasonable revenue from somewhere can save us. Live or let die.
ReplyDelete7:58 and 1:12 I agree get rid of revenue and we can close the newsroom and the paper. That's the winning ticket.
ReplyDeleteI don't see how short-term revenue encourages long-term readership, especially when the strategy further erodes what little news credibility Gannett has left.
ReplyDeleteJust like in combat: in pain a shot of morphine is great, but it doesn't really address that gaping, oozing hole in your gut while you die anyway.
So let's do Media 101: People read newspapers in print or online for news. Advertisers place their orders directly because of those readership figures. No readership? No advertising. No news? No readership.
And, of course, Gannett has that basic dynamic ass-backwards. It's a short ruby-shoed skip into the land or running stories tied to, colored by and beholden to advertising.
I agree with 6:14's comment earlier in this thread as far as there being no such thing as objectivity. But it should at least remain a point to strive for such as much as possible.
A story answerable to, and existing because of, business interests does not employ one sentence in that direction.
Yet, like any reasonably informed individual, I don't think it's a gee-whiz-radical idea to support community businesses. I make it a point to do business with as many as I can as often as I can -- and it has nothing to do with whether they take American Express.
Sorry, but I support community businesses because of what I've learned through reasonably available information, not some flak-like partnership with a credit card company.
Yeah. Heresy, I know.
Indeed, this is why I no longer support Gannett: having gutted the lives of many talented, committed staff in every locality in which it exists, it is hardly a community-based business.
I wouldn't hold too strongly to those death spiral comments. Perhaps in a company that is cutting the heart of its staff (sounds like a duck, must be Gannett} to maintain profit margins the bottom of the grave seems close. But at papers that know the future is print, online, multi-media and handheld bound together, the future will solidify. The second bounce of the recession isn't helping. So, think more of a roller coaster as we head to the bottom of the tracks before ascending again. Just how high up it what's unknown.
ReplyDeleteCorrection: Fraidy Reiss was not a "former investigative reporter" she was a municipal reporter at the APP. No disrespect to her for trying to pay the bills, but using former staffers to write advertorial just blurs the line for the reader. While I'm glad for any new revenue stream that keeps the wolves from the door, I'd hope Amex is charged the full boat for all that space and perhaps a different headline and body copy font should be used so as not to confuse it with "actual news."
ReplyDelete