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That is entirely NOT ETHICAL. Which makes it entirely NOT a perfect position for a recent "j-school grad".

*insert HistoryMike quote here"

posted by toledolen on Jun 29, 2009 at 10:09:09 pm     #

Should drop the word "journalism" from the ad, unless this is the new definition of "journalism." Infotainment. Advertnewsment.

I guess submitting open records requests on local government orgs for investigative stories doesn't pay the bills because hardly anyone would be interested in the reporter's findings.

posted by jr on Jun 29, 2009 at 11:20:33 pm     #

"Infotainment. Advertnewsment." that pretty much sums up my experience with most local printed AND television news these days. its a total joke.

posted by upso on Jun 30, 2009 at 12:11:23 am     #

If this is for the publication I think it is, I answered one of their ads (as a Journalism grad with, at the time, two previous newspaper jobs on my resume) a few years ago. I ended up declining to even come for an interview when I was told I'd be doing "mostly ad sales, but there is some journalism writing required."

Although, I suppose if I had been a bit hungrier and more desperate than I was, I would've taken the job. You gotta do what you gotta do. And to be honest with you, writing business profiles can actually be a fun, way-easy job for a writer. I just was not interested in doing ad sales.

But no it's not ethical ... unless the publication is very clearly a "shopper," i.e. the whole point of the publication is advertising businesses.

posted by jmleong on Jun 30, 2009 at 12:25:42 am     #

I had a boss (editor) in the early 90's that called it "advertorials." As a real journalist, I can tell you that I-along with many journalists I know- would never take a job like that. Probably the Sylvania Herald- sounds like something they would do since they let their editor go last fall due to the economy. They have had issues trying to keep sales people for the last 2 years- very low commission. They replaced the editor with a general manager who has a Master's in journalism- so he could do both jobs. Nuff said!

posted by golddustwoman on Jun 30, 2009 at 12:29:18 am     #

With all of that said, many weekly papers will do a "feature" on their advertisers in order to keep them. Hey, people, including small business owners, love to read about themselves. As long as the feature is just that, a feature and not a "review" of the business, there is nothing unethical about it. Papers will do anything to keep advertisers happy, especially in this economy. Many of those same weeklies also include some wonderful writing... Bedford Press, The Press, Toledo Free Press, Toledo City Paper, etc. And, jr.- The Press, which covers east Toledo, Oregon, Northwood, Walbridge, Luckey, Jerusalem Township and every other community up to Oak Harbor, routinely does investigative pieces which have included "open records requests." The paper is "award-winning".

posted by golddustwoman on Jun 30, 2009 at 12:38:38 am     #

I have been contacted by several radio stations that want to "interview" me in exchange for buying advertising space on their station.

But the entire media is based on "butt kissing". Let's face it, Barbara Walters didn't get to interview the famous people she does because she asks the ball-breaking questions. She asks the "fluffy" questions. If she did ask the tough questions, no one would agree to get interviewed by her.

Look at it. From the white house reporters, newspapers, tv, etc. They all have to "kiss butt" to get interviews. If they don't, they don't get interviews and therfore wouldn't have a job.

posted by hockeyfan on Jun 30, 2009 at 12:48:09 am     #

So much for getting facts and journalistic integrety. When the story is for the benefit of the writer and has nothing to do with informing the public, then freedom of the press is useless. Seems there are only 2 kinds of stories today, fluffy no-balls interviews that praise the subject or gut wrenching blood pieces and who is to blame. I shiver everytime i hear a reporter ask "so what was going through your mind when it happened?"

posted by Linecrosser on Jun 30, 2009 at 12:57:06 am     #

"Papers will do anything to keep advertisers happy ..."

An August 2005 comment I made at Toledo Talk in a media thread:

General Motors placed a full-page ad in Monday's edition of the LA Times, ending a boycott the automaker began in April when the paper published a column calling for the ousting of GM's Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, according to the LA Times. At the time, GM executives said they had concerns beyond Neil's column but declined to talk about them publicly.

GM spent around $21 million on ad space in the Times in 2004, up from about $9.9 million in 2003. Times spokeswoman Martha Goldstein declined to comment on the financial effect of the boycott. The Times, along with other newspapers across the nation, has been struggling amid sluggish advertising demand and a downturn in circulation. The advertising was pulled in April after Times automotive columnist Dan Neil, in his review of the Pontiac G6 sedan, called on GM to "dump" Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Wagoner. GM denied that a single article triggered the move.

Another comment in that same August 2005 thread:

A Michigan newspaper columnist who was fired Tuesday claims his dismissal was punishment for a column he wrote on Saturday criticizing American cars.

James Briggs, a former columnist and news editor at The Daily Telegram of Adrian, Mich., says the publisher canned him for writing the column that upset auto dealers and others so close to Detroit's auto manufacturing power houses. The publisher told E&P that auto advertisers did complain, but says there's more to it than that.

What he wrote was a column in Saturday's paper that described his decision to switch from driving an American car to a foreign model.

Briggs, 24, said he received no feedback from the newspaper until Tuesday morning when Publisher Paul Heidbreder approached him during his meeting with Lenz. "He said it was insensitive for me to write such a column given our proximity to the Big Three [automakers]," Briggs said. [Lenz] said no advertising had been lost so far, although some auto dealers had threatened to pull ads.

Yep, don't write anything critical about a business that's buying ads.

posted by jr on Jun 30, 2009 at 01:13:55 am     #

This ad is not for Toledo Free Press. - Michael Miller

posted by Fuselighter on Jun 30, 2009 at 06:24:18 am     #

Looks like they need to hire a proof reader.

posted by ToledoLatina on Jun 30, 2009 at 06:39:06 am     #

I'm an advertising copywriter, and I write advertorials all the time. On the other hand, I don't cover hard news. Never have, and most likely, never will.

The publications I work for are very obviously advertising-oriented. Part of what I do is to make our advertisers and their products look good. The other part is to craft a story that is interesting to our readers -- enough that they don't realize, or care, that they're reading an ad.

Entirely different skill set from hard news reporting. The publication above should simply hire a salesperson and pay somebody else for freelance articles.

posted by Anniecski on Jun 30, 2009 at 09:18:14 am     #

i've been thinking about this a lot since I posted this thread last night. I realize it's a tough time and all the traditional media outlets are suffering a bit, and the last thing id ever want to see is a death to these important news sources...

I just wish they would all be more obvious and honest in their reporting on advertisers. I think all readers understand advertising is important, but there are many readers who probably never make the connection that the content they may be reading is actually pay to play content.

Honesty is always the best policy...

posted by upso on Jun 30, 2009 at 10:40:58 am     #

Another point here, though, is that sometimes advertorial-type business profiles CAN be newsworthy -- there is such a thing as the news "feature story," which you might call "soft news." But it's still news.

For example, at one newspaper, I wrote several features about businesses which had just opened their doors or had added a new valuable service for their clients. Is that nothing more than "good press"? Well, of course it is. But it is easy to argue that it's in the readers' interest to know if a local hospital has just unveiled a new Birthing Center with advanced equipment and homey suites for new moms, if a new veterinarian practice has just opened that can provide specialty care for animals battling cancer, or if the local Adult Education program is providing classes about fishing techniques and equipment specifically geared toward women students (all true stories from my old portfolio). I was never involved in any ad sales with these businesses, I simply wrote the stories my editor requested. I suspect these businesses were advertisers, but as a writer I had no problem letting readers know that these businesses' new services were available. It is also important to note that I was NEVER told what details to include in my stories or what details to leave out, and I was never told, "This has to be a flattering piece." The construction of each story was entirely mine.

I think sometimes people who are entirely outside of the industry misunderstand journalism. Golddustwoman makes a good point above about newspapers that print soft news such as business profiles but also print investigative pieces. Readers, I think, want a well-rounded newspaper. Not all stories are meant to be Pulitzer contenders, but that doesn't mean soft news isn't valuable.

**

I will tell you that I think the ad first cited in this thread is probably for the Toledo Business Journal.

posted by jmleong on Jun 30, 2009 at 11:22:55 am     #

"I'm an advertising copywriter, and I write advertorials all the time. Part of what I do is to make our advertisers and their products look good. The other part is to craft a story that is interesting to our readers"

Sounds like an interesting job. Need good writing skills and creativity.

posted by jr on Jun 30, 2009 at 11:31:32 am     #

good point jmleong

posted by upso on Jun 30, 2009 at 11:32:08 am     #

I think the reader is sophisticated enough to know if a publication is just pr for business, or if it has balanced reporting. If a publication has a balance of features, hard news, and investigative, it is a legitimate news publication. If it just highlights local businesses in a positive way, it is a pr vehicle and nothing more.

The best community newspaper I ever read was The Press on the east side, as Golddustwoman mentioned. In the late 1990s, I was from West Toledo and just got hired by a business in the Oregon area. I didn't know anything about the East Side. My new boss told me that if I wanted to know what was happening in the area, subscribe to The Press, which I promptly did. The investigative stories I read in The Press were powerful, nothing I had seen in The Blade. I remember in particular the stories they did on a hazardous waste landfill in Oregon that was leaking into Lake Erie. They also did some stories on an adult bookstore that moved to the city. They really kicked butt! I remember thinking that I hope I never become one of their targets, lol. They took no prisoners. I have never known another weekly quite like it. I don't even know if it's still around, since I stopped getting it when I got another job in Toledo a few years later. Most weekly newspapers are very feature and community oriented, don't want to make waves. That's okay, too, if you only want to know about the positive things going on in your community, or want to know what time the book club meets at the public library.

The only newspaper I don't respect is the Sylvania Advantage after I found out they get paid by their subjects to do many of their stories. Maybe that's how they do things, but it shouldn't be called a newspaper. Perhaps that is the ad you saw on Craig's List.

posted by renegade on Jun 30, 2009 at 07:31:47 pm     #

It smells like:
http://www.toledobusinessreview.com/index.htm

posted by justareviewer on Jun 30, 2009 at 07:42:29 pm     #

In the end, always remember: It's Not News It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap as News

A little more serious book: The Elements of Journalism

Both are good reads. Here's an interesting tidbit from the Elements book:

"Hairdressers have more continuing education than journalists."

posted by jr on Jun 30, 2009 at 08:10:00 pm     #

I used to like watching the Today Show in the mornings but lately, everything that passes as "news" is celebrity oriented. I mean, yes, Michael Jackson's passing was surprising but days upon days of "news" about it? The constant speculation of who is going to get the kids, control his estate, what the cardiologist did or did not do, memorials to a glove? UUUGH!
In the media's defense, though, is that IF people did not want that type of news, the media would not do it. Everyone wants their news in well-digested 30 second snipets. Many people do not even pick up a newspaper to read it. Millions get their news from TV.
In journalsim, we are told to KISS- Keep It Simple Stupid- meaning dumb down the info so the average reader understands what the story is about. We are told not to use "big" words, etc. If you have an issue concerning how stories are being spoon fed to you, complain.
As for the "hairdresser" argument, I have to disagree. Journalists, by the very nature of the job, get "on the job" training in a variety of subjects on a daily basis. Some days you may be writing about a toxic spill, maybe a cancer survivor, a new wing being added to a hospital, or the county fair. A good journailst researches the subject at hand in order to be able to break the info down in a manner that "joe public" will understand.

posted by golddustwoman on Jul 01, 2009 at 09:49:50 am     #

The hairdresser reference came from Betty Medsger, "Winds of Change: Whither Journalism Education," a Freedom Forum study, July 1996.

"In journalsim, we are told to KISS- Keep It Simple Stupid- meaning dumb down the info so the average reader understands what the story is about. We are told not to use "big" words, etc."

In my opinion, "dumbing down" is not the same as clear, concise writing, which I like. Big, fancy words used in unnecessarily complex sentences smacks of obfuscation. Hemingway made a decent living as a journalist and fiction writer with his simple sentences.

Now if your target readers are strictly Ph.D. physicists, then ignoring terms related to the field or subject in favor of writing at the fourth-grade level would be considered dumbing down and an insult to the audience by an incompetent writer. But if you're writing for everyone about an issue related to physics, then simplifying the subject matter will be required, but I don't consider that dumbing down. It takes ability to explain a complex subject in a simple, understandable way. And the writer can direct the reader to more complex books or papers on the subject if the reader would like to know more.

The little, old book The Elements of Style still offers sage advice for today:

chapter "An Approach to Style" - point: 14. Avoid fancy words.

Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute. Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready and able.

chapter "Principles of Composition" - point: 17. Omit needless words.

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

October 2007 post about simple writing in media:

Cleveland Plain Dealer Internal Memo: Connie Schultz Writes At 5th Grade Level

Newspaper editors are worried about how to grab readers. And a Cleveland Plain Dealer internal memo from last week urges reporters to keep things simple. Plain English and short, uncomplicated sentences are best. It notes that Sen. Sherrod Brown's spouse, columnist Connie Schultz, has written at a level appropriate for fifth graders. Meanwhile, Washington bureau reporter Sabrina Eaton seems to be rebuked. The memo says she wrote about Dennis Kucinich at a level appropriate for high school seniors, or subscribers to The New York Times. Her "reading ease" score was low.

Excerpts from the PD memo:

The Writer's Group has been discussing Jack Hart's book, A Writer's Coach. This week we talked about the chapter on clarity. Hart points out that we can test the readability of our stories with the Flesch-Kincaid test, which is available in all Word programs. To get the Flesch-Kincaid test, click on tools, then spelling and grammar, then click on options and check "show readability scores". The Flesch-Kincaid test expresses scores in grade levels, based on sentence lengths, word lengths and active voice.

"Most writers with Flesch-Kincaid scores of 10 or less can engage a large, diverse audience," Hart writes. He says Pulitzer Prize winner Tom Hallman usually averages about grade 7. "Clear direct writing produces the lowest scorers," Hart writes.

Connie Schultz's Pulitzer finalist, Burden of Innocence, scored at the FIFTH-grade level. Burden had 4 percent passive sentences, 11.8 wps, 4.2 cpw and a reading ease score of 78, the highest of any I tested. Andy's Last Secret, a national award winner from Joanna Connors, also scored at the 6th-grade level with only 1 percent passive sentences.

posted by jr on Jul 01, 2009 at 12:53:22 pm     #

Oooooh, I did not know you could do that in Word! I just did it for a letter I wrote this morning -- neat. Thanks jr.

posted by jmleong on Jul 01, 2009 at 01:44:38 pm     #

JR -- Thanks for pointing out the difference between making something simple and "dumbing down." Many writers don't seem to realize that, just because they know a bunch of $64 words, their readers don't, nor are they likely to go to a dictionary and look them up.

I was always taught to write for "the little old lady on Galena Street."

posted by Anniecski on Jul 02, 2009 at 04:25:03 pm     #

JR -- Thanks for pointing out the difference between making something simple and "dumbing down." Many writers don't seem to realize that, just because they know a bunch of $64 words, their readers don't, nor are they likely to go to a dictionary and look them up.

I was always taught to write for "the little old lady on Galena Street."

posted by Anniecski on Jul 02, 2009 at 04:26:01 pm     #

"Little old lady on Galena Street?" I may get smacked HARD for this but I know the demographic picture I get from this statement. Been in newsrooms for years- weeklies and Gannett owned daily newspapers- and however you put it, PC or not- dumbing down/simplifying/ little old ladies on Galena-Collingwood, Utah, or whatever street located in a not so great part of the city- it is the same thing.

posted by golddustwoman on Jul 03, 2009 at 01:11:38 pm     #

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