Friday, October 21, 2011

USAT | Homepage gets Jeep ad wallpaper

Maybe I'm just noticing this for the first time, but: USA Today's homepage is wallpapered right now with Jeep advertisements -- including the far-left and far-right margins that ordinarily are white space. I've indicated those areas with arrows in the screenshot, above. Is this a first?

Earlier: Founder Neuharth says full-page Jeep ad wrap in July 2010 is "low point" among any decision made by USAT publishers.

3 comments:

  1. Big Al can shut up and the sales and marketing team should continue to sell, sell, sell. Everytine we complain about layoffs it is a result of poor revenues. So stop complaining about these moves. Sell it all folks. They can sell space in the shirts of photograPhers abd reporters if it brings in money!!! Plus the photogs and reporters would get Free shirts and sweaters.

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  2. 5:36 makes a good point as far as it goes, but its "cart before the horse" focus leaves out one critical factor: from a traffic standpoint, news sites (and their audience for advertising) are not clicked on for their ads (despite what one's rah-rah sales manager chirps at the morning meetings), but for their news content.

    Selling, selling, selling, even for its own sake, is a little late when Gannett's news sites first severely cripple potential viewership (and an advertiser's bang for the buck)by relying - with some nearly accidental but great exceptions - upon largely vacuous cookie-cutter content and style.

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  3. you have to have a decent website to sell ads. USA Today's is still a joke. Underplaying major stories. Late to the party on others. Compared to rivals, USAT reporters (and editors) seem at a loss at posting their own content on many stories, relying on wire and wire ripoffs that supposed to pass for "original" content. When I look for news, I go to the NYT site,or CNN or MSN.

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