AAN News

Boise Weekly Editor: 'It's Not OK' to Mix Editorial and Advertising

In an opinion column published yesterday, Boise Weekly editor Rachael Daigle affirms her paper's commitment to maintaining a wall between editorial and advertising. The column is in response to Chicago Reader publisher Alison Draper's recent declaration that her paper will "push" the line between the two. Daigle calls foul on the notion:
Blurring the lines between editorial and advertising is called advertorial. It's not journalistic, it's not ethical to pass it off as editorial content and it's the public that loses when editorial integrity is compromised.

No matter how bad business was at BW during the heaviest part of the recession, we never once considered chipping away at the wall that separates our editorial and advertising departments. The day BW Publisher Sally Freeman announces her intention to "push" the line between editorial and sales will be the day I'll hand her my resignation. Thankfully, Freeman is BW's biggest protector of that line.
It just so happens that AAN editors will be discussing this topic during a roundtable session next Thursday in Toronto. (FULL STORY)
Boise Weekly  |  07-08-2010  12:06 pm  |  Industry News  |  Comments (1)

Publisher Says Chicago Reader Will "Push" Line Between Editorial and Advertising

More details have come to light on the CL, Inc. decision to fire long-time Chicago Reader editor Alison True. Speaking to senior editor Michael Miner -- who on Friday described True's firing as a "tragic misjudgment" -- Reader publisher Alison Draper indicated that the paper's next editor will be expected to collaborate more often with the business side:
"The editor of the Reader," said Draper, "has to work closely with sales to find innovative ways to take our fair share of the dollars that are shrinking and shrinking quickly." She promised me that she wouldn't "blur" the line between editorial and advertising, but she would "push" it. The distinction was clearer to her than it was to me.
Miner goes on to explain that True was fired at a Starbucks after the paper's Best of Chicago issue came out. It was, Miner says, the "fattest, most successful issue in years, a triumph True and Draper should have been sharing in." (FULL STORY)
Chicago Reader  |  06-29-2010  5:53 pm  |  Industry News

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