1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Bloodsucking at LAT

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Frank_Ridgeway, Jun 12, 2009.

  1. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    Wraparound advertorial:

    http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gCN5lK6rXviUTebCoRD-Yp4W3ixAD98PBBJO0
     
  2. ServeItUp

    ServeItUp Active Member

    The masthead? You mean it's under the listing of newspaper personnel buried on the editorial page? Or the flag?

    A former employer did front pages with some element of a big summer blockbuster coming out of the flag several times while I was there. The powers that be, including a night editor who was all for it and is now teaching at a prominent j-school, couldn't stop slapping themselves about how cool it looked (forget which movies).

    I asked what we were getting for it and was greeted with blank stares. "Can't we just do something cool for the sake of doing something cool?" I said, "Sure, as long as we don't look like shills. Figure out what you'll tell a local business who asks for that same space." They got pissed off at me because it was all about the design and looking cool, and that didn't sit well with me, because we got nothing in exchange for it and I thought it looked dumb.

    Didn't the LA Times do this with some other show, and some advertorial copy that confused readers?
     
  3. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    Yeah, Southland.
     
  4. 2muchcoffeeman

    2muchcoffeeman Well-Known Member

    Oh Trib execs and HBO types ... I have something for you.

    [​IMG]

    There's been a lot of stealth marketing for True Blood — HBO's paid a lot of money out to a lot of different companies and media outlets (including paying off Gawker to set up a Gawker.com-style blog). The story I saw on CNN the other day said that a lot of consumers don't realize what's really being sold and get pissed off when they find out it's a fake.

    http://buyordontbuy.com/2008/07/dont-buy-lazy-stealth-marketing-to-the-geek-niche/
    http://www.marketingshift.com/2008/9/trueblood-hbo-vampire-series-virus.cfm

    In the meantime, the Times' credibility with its readers is gone.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  5. Birdscribe

    Birdscribe Active Member

    One of my cohorts -- a Times alum -- just showed this to me. I was aghast.

    Otis Chandler just did a 720 fakie in his grave and knows not why.

    Now, it's one thing to put an ad on A1; that genie's out of the bottle and running amok -- even if the Times did a hideous L-shaped version of it rather than stripping it at the bottom.

    It's another to bastardize your paper's masthead, it's identifying logo.

    http://online.wSportsJournalists.com/article/SB123931867955106793.html
     
  6. Jersey_Guy

    Jersey_Guy Active Member

    That's just brutal.

    Absolutely brutal.
     
  7. gottawrite

    gottawrite Member

    I think we've long passed the point where newspapers can afford to do anything but leap at revenue from ads such as the one wrapped around the Times today. Most readers will do what I did: Grumble while fumbling around to find the A section and then cast the wrap aside and read all the Lakers coverage. It's not about whether to sell out any more. It can't be. It has to be about how much you got for your Masthead's cherry.
     
  8. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    Hey, the publisher is just trying to keep the lights on. ::)
     
  9. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    Yeah, but at some point don't you have to ask ... what's the point?

    I mean, why not just call ourselves shoppers? At what point have we given up so much of our credibility in the desperate search for "innovative" ad revenue that we're not even considered a serious business entity -- let alone newsgathering operation -- anymore?
     
  10. Giggity

    Giggity Member

    Any guesses what that would cost?
     
  11. lantaur

    lantaur Well-Known Member

    A pic, for those interested:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/ihatemyscreenname/3619387523/
     
  12. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    I agree. I see what Buckweaver's saying too, but at this point, well, go chase the cash. Screw it.

    I think the public is pretty much used to crazy advertising, and in some ways I'm less offended by this than the funky-shaped ads in the local Gannett rag that play games with your eyes. I can quickly discard this thing and get to the news.

    For me, the last bastion was seeing ads on the front page of the NYT. I'm used to it now. Don't like it, of course, but I'm used to it.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page