Tuesday, October 08, 2013

USAT | Here's Day 6 of homepage held hostage

As USA Today continues to debase itself by so publicly sucking up to a major advertiser, we have a yet another example of the paper's publishing the same cruise story two days in a row in its top news story list on the homepage.

When you think about it, though, it's a brilliant strategy that could be extended to other stories, cutting the overall news budget in half!

Related: this spreadsheet tracks USAT's daily homepage cruise stories.
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11 comments:

  1. Anonymous10/08/2013 1:42 PM

    Jim, USAT’s actions here may be questionable, but your continuation of the hostage theme is, well pretty pathetic, as USAT is clearly anything but….they are a willing participant.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jim Hopkins10/08/2013 1:57 PM

      Two words: lighten up.

      Delete
    2. Jim Hopkins10/08/2013 3:19 PM

      Also, you may be too young to remember the origins of ABC's Nightline -- a news program I'm alluding to with my headline here.

      From Wikipedia:

      At that time, the show was called The Iran Crisis–America Held Hostage: Day "xxx", where xxx represented each day that Iranians held hostage the occupants of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10/08/2013 9:09 PM

      Jim is simply pointing out the truth...and the truth hurts, doesn't it 1:42 pm?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10/10/2013 9:44 AM

      Two words: Deeper Hole

      Comparing the 444 day Iranian hostage crisis whereby Americans were actually HELD HOSTAGE against their will to USAT’s WILLING PARTICIPATION is offensive at best Hopkins. It’s not even close, more so as Americans died to free them.

      So, distort and sensationalize USAT’s profit taking as you will, but what you’ve really done is dug a deeper hole for its use.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous10/08/2013 2:21 PM

    There has been a great deal of news regarding the cruise industry and the lack of pricing power and future bookings that has hammered these names in the stock market.

    I suspect we won't see much reporting on that in MONEY.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous10/08/2013 5:17 PM

    I stopped reading USA Today right around the time of that ridiculous redesign. Combined with the countless errors, horrid news judgment...well, this isn't a serious news product anymore. It's a brand in decline and in desperation mode. Even from the outside, that fact is apparent to anyone with any sort of news industry experience.

    Furthermore, USA Today has some pretty shaky ethics issues that go back several years. Internal and external issues. Even the way the paper is marketed has always raised a few eyebrows. There are age discrimination allegations there. And, of course, there have been reporting scandals.

    USAT definitely seems to have some karma issues. It's history of destroying the competition in small towns throughout the country through some less-than-honorable methods didn't do a lot to advance the cause of good journalism. Fast forward to recent problems in how it conducted buyouts and layoffs. What a crime. I personally know two very loyal and qualified folks who were shown the door for no good reason. Kind of confirmed what I always thought about that heartless paper. The flagship is a reflection of Gannett....and we know what Gannett is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10/08/2013 7:31 PM

      Let's see: No sources or proof, only allegations. Typical worthless post at Gannett Blog.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous10/08/2013 6:51 PM

    It's working: I have a tremendous urge to book a cruise.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous10/08/2013 11:53 PM

    I imagine that the Travel enterprise was never meant to be 'news'. That's too much work! It's purpose is garnering audience (and thus dollars) by the easy route - a forum of advice, tips, resources, and soft features. And, probably a run of partnerships with a slew of industry content and business orgs. All that is meant to be an indictment - and an example of the dumbing down of Travel. Usat was longtime a travel news heavyweight. Whether it is today will be because of audience size, not critical reporting. A shame.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jim Hopkins10/10/2013 9:58 AM

    Today marks the eighth consecutive day USAT has included a cruise-related puff piece in its list of top news stories.

    ReplyDelete

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