Westpac hides US jitters
The front page to today’s Australian Financial Review newspaper has been trashed by an ad for Westpac bank stuck over a news story. The post-it note type ad is a great ‘get’ for Westpac as it pulls visual focus, like any good ad should. Everyone looking at the the AFR in a newsagency today will see the Westpac ad first.
Besides the trash caused by people ripping the ad off once the buy the newspaper, I am frustrated with the damage to the newspaper medium. Selling ads to cover news content speaks volumes about publisher commitment to news.
Victorian budget cover-up
The front page of today’s Australian Financial Review newspaper has a garish post-it type ad stuck over the photo of Victorian Treasurer John Lenders demonstrating again that the advertising department in Fairfax has more clout than editorial.
This demonstrates little respect for the story, the photographer or for the newspaper itself.
The AFR is better than the damage on today’s front cover demonstrates.
Geelong Advertiser cover up
The Geelong Advertiser has joined the ranks of newspapers allowing news on the front page of the newspaper to be covered up by a stuck on ad. Even if it is for a promotion connected with the beloved Geelong Football Club, it damages the newspaper.
I know publishers do this for the ad revenue.  This is a short term view since newspapers will only attract ads if they sell and they will only sell if readers trust the product. I suggest that trust is challenges by covering up news with stuck on ads.
Thanks Andrew for the photo.
Flight Centre trashes SMH
Flight Centre has paid enough money to the advertising department to allow them to remind the editorial professionals at the Sydney Morning Herald who controls the masthead. The photo to the left has been sent by a friend who reads this blog – thank you. This pollution of the front page ought to be unacceptable to any newspaper professional who cares about the medium and its brands.
It is ironic that I’m writing about pollution today with the squeals from the Formula 1 Grand Prix track in Melbourne drifting through the open doors in my home. So much for quiet enjoyment.  The sooner we lose this audio trash from our city the better. I feel the same about the newspapers. Ads stuck on newspaper mastheads are trash, they interrupt my enjoyment of the product. They demean the newspaper and give me a reason to dislike the advertiser.
The what Morning Herald?
Some companies can’t help themselves and tell the world when they have lost respect for their brand. Here’s today’s The Sydney Morning Herald.
Sportodds.com has paid to cover up Sydney in the mashead with their stuck on ad. The Advertising team has, again, demonstrated they are more powerful than editorial at Fairfax, publishers of the SMH.
As one who loves newspapers, what has happened to the SMH today is dreadful. Customers will vent because of the ad, others will rip the ad off and throw it on the ground.
In 2005 there was a minor scandal when a Las Vegas casino paid a woman to tattoo their brand on her forehead. Not long after, a website started offering human body real-estate for temporary and permanent tattoos. The reports and opinion pieces in newspapers at the time were how could someone sell themselves in this way. This is what the folks at the Sydney Morning Herald have done today – they have put dollars ahead of the brand. They have demonstrated a lack of respect for their brand.
News cover-up at the Financial Review
Oh, it was Michael Luscombe, CEO of Woolworths, obscured by the ad for Smart Investor magazine stuck on the front cover of today’s Australian Financial Review.
The decision to stick this ad on top of news on the front page and over a news photo can’t have been made by newspaper people – I’d be shocked if they agreed to have their product compromised in such a way.
These stuck on ads tell us something about the respect, or lack thereof, the folks at Fairfax have for the medium which was once at the core of their business.
Beyond the ad itself is the disrespect folks at Fairfax show newsagents. They pressure us to promote Smart Investor in store and then they go and use products we sell to try and take sales of the title we are promoting from us. I can’t compete with the $43 off offer. Their pitch makes newsagents look expensive.
The cynical newspaper publisher
Newspaper publishers often seek to mitigate the impact of a price rise. Smart ones do this through promotions wh9ch add value to the product. Less smart publishers offer steep discounts off the increased price. Even less smart publishers offer steep discounts through one channel (home delivery) while expecting equally loyal customers through the other channel (retail) to cop it sweet.
This is what was behind the awful sticker stuck on the front of the Sydney Morning Herald this morning. The marketing department was seeking to mitigate the impact of their cover price increase. The offer disrespects their retail partners. It also disrespects existing home delivery customers. Oh, and it disrespects home delivery newsagents who stand to make less because of the Fairfax largesse.
70% off! What is that? It’s scared marketing that’s what it is. It’s, we know this paper is not worth what we are charging so we are prepared to cut the guts out of the price but only if you use the distribution channel which gives us more control, is more expensing and which is funded as a loss leader by small business people who can ill afford to have margin further cut.
I love the Sydney Morning Herald as a newspaper, it is worth the cover price increase. The game played out today, stuck on the masthead, cheapens the product and shows that some within Fairfax don’t share my faith in their newspaper.
My view is that Fairfax ought to have ridden through any downside of the price increase and come out in a week or two with a premium offer based on coupon redemption. Something of value which gets people buying at retail over seven or fourteen days. The Australian is doing this right now and my information says it is working. News Ltd is smart when it comes to these things.
Trashing the newspaper
What does today’s Sydney Morning Herald tell us about the state of the newspaper. As the photo below shows, the marketing department has succeeded in having their ad – for cheap home delivery – stuck on top of the masthead, obscuring the Sydney in the title.
I was shocked when I saw this when I arrived here this morning. At least the folks at The Age stick their ads over editorial, not the actual masthead itself. Journalists I correspond with in the US tell me they would bring on industrial action if their publisher permitted such an attack on the brand.
While I am no marketing expert, I would have thought that covering your brand in this way is a bad move.
On the home delivery offer itself, I doubt newsagents will be happy – they make less from a home delivery sale than retail from the product itself and add on sales through retail. A smart publisher would develop an incentive program with retailers so they can drive single copy sales. This is fertile ground yet of little interest to some publishers as they don;t have the same control they have through home delivery.
Covering the front page
It diminishes the stature of the national business newspaper of record that they permit post it note type ads to be stuck on their front page, over editorial content. It is even worse when the ad is for an in-house publication.
This is what has happened to the Australian Financial Review this weekend. An ad for the BRW business magazine has been stuck on the front page. It pulls focus and creates litter as customers rip the ad off after they have purchased the title.
What do I care, all I do is sell the newspaper? My comments here are more as a newspaper fan, someone who respects the medium and what it stands for. These stuck on ads demean the medium and serve as a reminder of the influence the bean counters exert over editorial content. They reduce my trust in the medium.
The Age puts money ahead of plane crash
The National Australia Bank has paid to get its post-it type ad stuck over editorial content on today’s edition of The Age. Beyond the desecration of page 1 of the newspaper and the frustration expressed by customers when the paper rips upon removal of the ad is the confusing message from NAB. How can a bank which has just hiked its interest rates now promote 0% interest for some customers.
I was contacted by a journalist from the US last week wanting to know more about these post-it type ads on the front of Fairfax newspapers. He was shocked at some of the photos he has seen at this blog and wanted to know if it was a big deal in Australia. He told me there would be industrial action among his colleagues if the publisher he worked for desecrated page one in this way.
IBM rips Treasurer
Another win for Advertising over news content at the Australian Financial Review today with a round Post-It type ad stuck on the front page of the newspaper. From what I hear from others, Fairfax leads the world in desecrating the their newspaper mastheads and pages with these stuck on ads.
Here is a photo of page one of the AFR once I lifted the ad off. No, I did not set out to make a mess, I genuinely wanted to read the story underneath. I wonder how many customers will want their money back? I would.
The Age trumps Hillary
Congratulations to the folks at The Age newspaper for pulling focus from the front page story about the passing of Sir Edmund Hillary with another garish and hated by customers stuck on ad – this time for their own newspaper. See for yourself how awful this looks…
As for the offer on the ad, I don’t care for it. I’m a retail newsagent and have no interest in driving customers from my business to home delivery.
The Age losing identity
The Beaurepairs Direct ad stuck on the front page of The Age newspaper today obscures a chunk of the name of the newspaper.
This is a disappointing win for the advertising sales department and bean counters over what should be a proud newspaper masthead.
In the US and Europe newspaper editors would not allow this to happen and if it did, there would be a public outcry.
Newspaper front page cover up
The editorial and design folks at the Australian Financial Review must be disappointed at the desecration of the front page of the Queensland edition of their newspaper today.
The advertiser would be happy because you look at their ad ahead of the newspaper content.
Fairfax demonstrates little respect for Australia’s flagship business daily.