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The Daily Photoist: September 30, 2008 (30)
This is how today's AY R arrived at subscribers' doorsteps.
The wrap was last year's innovation.
The beer "coaster" is a piece of paper stuck on like a post-it note.
We wonder what 2009 will bring.
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I hate the wrap with a burning passion! It makes it so hard to read.
Mine didn't come with the coaster. I live in an apartment building so someone probably swiped it before I got the paper.
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I don't mind the wrap. I instinctively throw it away and don't bother looking at it. The same is true with all other ads: billboards, posters, commercials, etc.
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Yeah, this is pretty bad, but not as bad as when Metro sells the entire front page as ad space. Sure it's free, but have some integrity!
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My neighbour's Toronto Sun delivery came with a free sample of Nutella(!) in the bag the other day.. It was probably the first time I've been jealous of her paper. :)
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Mmm....
All the Chinese newspapers (that I know of) sell their front pages for ads. It's not uncommon to see an advertiser buy the entire first page of all four major Chinese newspapers (that I know of)... in fact, it's hilarious unwrapping them and putting them out for sale in the morning. xD
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My friend derisively says of newspapers, "get yesterdays news tomorrow!" .... newsrooms are dead, and there is very little decent local news on radio, television, or in newspapers.
Cheers,
Tuds
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The wrap isn't such a bad thing. If your copy of the Red Star is covered up then you'll have a harder time reading it.
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Three "Wheels" sections glorifying the car every single week is sickening.
The Star could be a great voice for Toronto, too bad its environmental views don't mesh with the massive ad department sections that gets tossed in the recycling bin before a single word is read.
Who needs the message to consume more and more crap from developers and car manufacturers and to vote for Conservatives disguised as Liberals.
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"newsrooms are dead, and there is very little decent local news on radio, television, or in newspapers"
You wouldn't know it by looking at the local blogs' coverage of city news.
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lol @ james a. :)
I HATE THE WRAP with a passion that burns. All I want is to read the newspaper in peace. I don't care to be assaulted.
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This is what happens to Old Media when you stop paying attention to it.
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Svend: I recommend Joe Clark's pretty good look at the ethics of the Wheels section.
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Thanks, Jonathan - that's an interesting read.
I can't imagine why anyone would buy a car based on a Wheels review. Consumer Reports magazine does a better comparison job and it's unbiased. That issue also makes money for them.
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I spoke with the Star, your advertising-free version will be delivered beginning next week, and your monthly subscription price has been raised by 3000% to reflect the difference in marginal cost. Thanks for your patronage.
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Strawmen are not a valid part of debate, x.
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I think we're getting to a point where irrational fear of advertising is going to have to be classified as a mild psychological disorder, like claustrophobia. Or a fear of heights. Or spiders. Let's call it adverphobia.
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Isn't it funny that someone could write "the editorial integrity of the Wheels section" with a straight face? Say, maybe they might also notice that the folks writing in the Condo section are trying to sell you something too. And the Lifestyle section.
These things pay for the paper -- pay to send the reporters out to do things you want them to. If you can't take a little advertising, ask yourself if you want to pay taxes for it.
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The correct question in this case is not whether you want to pay taxes for it (I would think even government, with its stellar track record in business ventures, would be wary of the print media market in this climate), but whether the reader would be willing to pay a much higher price to have an ad-free or an ad-reduced version. I suspect if there was a market for either it would already exist.
Maybe someone in the business can give as an ad-revenue per weekend edition figure to give us at least a ballpark idea of the multiple (though even that would be understated because it wouldn't capture the unique costs of designing and running a separate edition, etc.. I also expect that it wouldn't attract any new subscribers and would just canabalize the current list).
Rek, feel free to ignore since you think the supposition that an ad-free or ad-reduced version would be more expensive to the reader is a straw man argument.
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Speaking of the Star and badvertising, what the hell is this excruciating fuckery on their website?!
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I hate those floating ads... Now Magazine's site uses them to. Or at least used to - I have completed stopped visiting that site, because the ads were so f'n annoying.
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x_the_x: Yet another straw man. I didn't say anything of the sort — just as nobody else said all advertising should be removed from the papers, until you presented it as if they had. Please work on your kneejerk reactions, discussing anything with you has become a real chore lately.
(Hunting down and killing floating ads can be tricky with AdBlock for Firefox, but it can be done. You have to nail the right script, which can be a tedius trial-and-error process.)
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My apologies for assuming that the complaint regarding too much advertising might imply a preference for less.
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Oh I give up. I don't know what compels you to misinterpret everything so you can appear aloof, but I'm done with it.
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But I've been so patient with you, rek ...
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I don't think that people are advocating, in this case, that all advertising be removed from the paper -- just that it be less intrusive. But just like TV, the papers are finding that the old ads aren't as effective, and they have to make them more noticeable.