At the Courier News in Somerville, N.J., I found the following today, thanks to a Gannett Blog reader:
And this is at a newspaper with one of the new paywalls, no less.
And this is at a newspaper with one of the new paywalls, no less.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
17 comments:
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Jim, do you read many newspapers? This is pretty typical community-section fare. Has been for decades.
ReplyDeleteYou can laugh, but really, free Slurpees matter more to your readers than the latest incremental step toward a sidewalk review process. (Granted, it's not Free Cone Day at Ben and Jerry's, which your paper will want to report as a traffic hazard at the very least.)
The C-N has been dying the death of a thousand (staff and resource)cuts for years. Filler, plain and simple
ReplyDeleteI just threw up in my mouth a lot. Must. Get. Out.
ReplyDeleteThis is what passes as journalism when the general manager has no balls & no journalistic integrity. All advertisers must be made happy at all costs.
ReplyDeleteAdvertorial. The present and future of much of journalism. Sad.
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ReplyDeleteI'd pay to get past a paywall for some free Slurpee action.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's why the Gannett paywall experiment is doomed to fail. Seriously. That counts as news?
The brick home "story" is not even advertorial; it's flat-out shilling for the Realtor.
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ReplyDeleteThe Ex Ed at The Desert Sun in PS would call this investigative reporting ...
ReplyDeleteWilmington cheered when he headed out the door.
DeleteAbout on journalistic par with the groundbreaking lead story at my paywalled Gannett rag.
ReplyDeleteZzz.
The Enquirer couldn't fill all those open pages in Sunday Business and Local sections without such press releases. And the press releases often come to the desk with no editing whatsoever. "We invite you to come down to our store ..." Who's doing the inviting? The Enquirer??? The best was when a centerpiece promoting the big home and garden show at the convention center used a press release verbatim inviting everyone to come for a free preview event that day. Turns out that event was for media only. (The copy editor who made that catch and rewrote the centerpiece on deadline took the buyout soon thereafter.) Who needs copy editors?!
ReplyDeleteThe GM is untouchable, GCI knows the GM would sue if it ever tried to remove him. So he can do whatever he likes, with no fear.
ReplyDeleteWashington Post Arts section Sunday cover story: Summer concerts at Wolftrap. Oh heavens! It's an advertorial for a concert venue! Journalism is dead!
ReplyDeleteIt's worth noting that, in percentage terms, the Courier News lost more circulation in 2000-2010 than any other Gannett paper.
ReplyDeleteIts sales fell to 18,437 weekdays from 41,354 during the period -- a decline of more than 55%.
I really don't find the real estate thing to be a big deal. A lot of newspapers have a "House of the Week" or some such silliness. As long as it's in the real estate section, I just don't care.
ReplyDeleteA LOT of things in the CN were far more embarrassing over the years than this. That place was a cesspool of kissing ass to advertisers, a complete lack of ethics and worse examples of advertising masquerading as news. Anyone in NJ remember the "Shopping Adventure?"