AMP has padi to cover part of the masthead of The Sunday Age today. This is another example of the advertising epartment not respecting the brand. Last week, The Age published a story which talked, in part, about the importance of mastheads.
Among the many maxims in publishing folklore, few harbour as foreboding a warning as that about a newspaper’s masthead.
“Meddle with your masthead at your own peril” goes the dark threat.
This is how Graeme Johnstone opened his article, Evolution of a masthead in extra, the Quarterley newsletter for readers of The Age published at the weekend. Johnstone takes us through the history of the masthead of The Age and some of the issues navigated – well worth a read by anyone interested in newspapers and newspaper mastheads.
Johnstone’s article ends with: And, as they say, muck around with things too much and suffer the consequences.
I wonder how Johnstone would feel when he sees The Age this morning. The newspaper masthead has again been covered by an advertisement – this time for ING Direct. This makes a mockery of Jonstone’s article as it shows the company itself does not value the masthead.
Perhaps the continued selling of these ads to cover the venerable masthead of The Age and other Fairfax newspapers reflects a view about the future of print newspapers held by bean counters in the company and not newspaper people.
The post-it type ad stuck over the masthead of The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper today is the worst damage I have seen done to a newspaper masthead in time I have been chronicling this activity here.
This desecration of their brand demonstrates how little value Fairfax places in what was once a great newspaper brand. Maybe they don’t think Sydney is all that important.
At some point in the future there will be a question of when media companies changed their view of the value of newspaper mastheads. I hope that the photos I have posted here of the use by Fairfax of this cover-up advertising will be of some assistance.
Beyond the trashing of the mastehad of The Age newspaper today with another of their home delivery subscription offers is the frustration of this type of campaign for a retail newsagent. They are prepared to give their home delivery customers a 50% discount yet their regular retail customers, who have a lower distribution cost, no reward for loyalty. And they wonder why I will not actively promote their online businesses or subscription offers in-store.
On some copies of The Age today the coat of arms was completely covered by the post it type ad stuck on the front cover of the newspaper. Why not remove the masthead altogether and have an ad permanently embedded in the masthead? I am regularly asked by journalism, marketing and other students about these ads stuck on the mastheads of Fairfax newpapers. I will keep publishing photos when I notice the ads if only to record the damage to great brands.
I saw a customer pick up the Sydney Morning Herald this morning, remove the post it type ad for Oxfam stuck on the masthead and leave this at the counter. Regulars here will know I obsess about these stuck on ads on Fairfax newspapers. The ones I dislike the most are those stuck over a news headline or the masthead as they represent a disrespect for the brand. Oh, as the trash left by unhappy customers.
The Age shows what it thinks of the Spring Racing Carnival today by placing post-it type ad over the top of a promotion of its racing coverage inside the paper. What is the point of printing a headline or masthead or teaser for a story inside if you are going to allow an advertiser to pay to cover it up?
The Sydney Morning Herald brand was well and truly trashed by the placement of an ad for real insurance stuck on top of the newspaper’s masthead today. This is the worst of these stock-on ads I have seen. It demonstrates a complete lack of respect for the SMH brand and the newspaper masthead by
Brand is everything in business. It defines your product and evokes emotion in the mind of consumers. Why, then, would you allow another brand to cover it up. The only reason I can see is that the money from the advertiser is more important than the brand you are permitting to be covered.
I am grateful to Angelo from Jindabyne newsagency for sharing this photo of the ad for the Labour Party stuck on page one of the Canberra Times newspaper late last week. Paying to be stuck on the newspaper masthead did not help Labor in the territory election. These ads are a blight. They demonstrate the bean counters winning against editorial.
This weekend’s Australian Financial Review has a post-it type ad for BRW subscriptions stuck on the front page. At least they have not covered a major headline or the masthead. However, it again shows that advertising is more powerful at Fairfax than editorial. I wish that Fairfax would invest as much in helping newsagents grow subscription sales for in-store pickup as they do for these hand delivered subscriptions.
“Age staff are passionate about their masthead and their readers, and are disappointed that the managers of the company appear willing to sacrifice quality journalism for the sake of the bottom line.” Michael Bachelard, Senior Journalist with The Age, quoted by the Herald Sun in a story about the decision by Age journalists to strike tomorrow.
Age staff should not be disappointed. There has been evidence for at least two years of the managers sacrificing quality for the sake of the bottom line. One only has to look at their selling of ad space to cover editorial content and their own masthead for this evidence. Maybe the Age journalists only realised when their jobs were put on the line. the reality is that their jobs were on the line the first time a headline or story was covered with one of those post it ads I have gone on about here for two years.
I am grateful to a colleague for this photo of an ad stuck on the front cover of the Bangkok Post. The Visa advertisement covered up a front page news story and was much bigger than the stuck on ads
The post it note type ad for Simply Energy stuck on page one of The Sunday Age newspaper this morning covers promotion for their Olympics coverage. When I followed the instructions and lifted the ad it tore the page in half. While I am sure advertisers love these ads, they continue to damage editorial content.
There is no doubt that the ad for ING stuck over the masthead on The Age newspaper today looks stunning. You see this before the headline about Eddie Maguire – almost sacrilege in Melbourne. The advertiser would be very happy as would the advertising department at The Age. I love newspapers and wish that newspaper professionals inside The Age had the strength to stop ads being stuck over editorial content or, worse still, the newspaper masthead.
The photo is of the front page of the Sun Herald which I got in
The promotion of the Brisbane Times website so boldly above the masthead of the newspaper is a reminder to newsagents of the disruption occurring to their traditional business and a reason to consider carefully all capital investment in the future.
While newspapers are important, we need to find our own Brisbane Times and invest appropriately in our shops.
The Brisbane Times is also being supported by a billboard campaign from what I could see.
The Sydney Morning Herald today has a GIO ad stuck over the word Morning. I took the photo at the Virgin Blue lounge – it’s their red sticker on the left. Copies of the SMH which I saw in the city today had the GIO ad a little lover – wiping out the masthead.
Newsagents had an argument with publishers four years ago about what else they could deliver with the newspaper. Their argument was that they did not want to diminish their brand. Today’s newspapers do just that.
