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Topic: Handling bad press about advertisers
| Author | Message |
| PluckyPane | Posted – 11/14/2007 5:56:18 PM | show profile | email poster Hi all, I'm the managing editor for a fairly small, but internationally distributed trade publication As a matter of policy, our company will bury bad press about an advertiser. When I push the point, purely based on ethics, I'm told, "Well, go ahead and run that story. You can explain it to so and so when they call and drop their advertising. Then you can pay me back the money we lost when they drop their ads. Do you really want to be responsible for the ad exec starving?" (Ha ha....the ad exec works 19 hours per week and makes more than me and my assistant combined.) So if one of the vehicle manufacturers/insurance companies/suppliers that advertise with us is killing people because of a faulty whatchamacallit or the CEO has been indicted on embezzlement charges, I can't run it. I'm told that trade mags run very differently than consumer with an infinite pool of advertising dollars. BUT where the heck do you draw the line? |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 11/14/2007 6:11:57 PM | show profile The line is draw differently at different magazines. Some will be zealous reporters of the industry. Others -- and this is more common -- have never heard a discouraging word. Some magazines will only write about advertisers (and positively, of course). You won't find a one-size-fits-all answer. When I was starting out, I worked for a small weekly that would do a best of readers poll (and occasionally the editor, if the votes were close, would replace the real winner with a company that advertised). Basically, only you can decide where to draw the ethical line and what battles you choose to fight. |
