Should Advertising And Editorial Work Closer Together – What’s The Point of Stories About Cheap Flights Across The Atlantic If Advertising is Concentrating On Selling Expensive Swiss Watches and Other Luxury Items?

Philip M. Stone November 11, 2009 Follow on Twitter

For the purists who insist there must be a thick, high Chinese Wall between editorial and advertising the very thought of some sort of collusion hits where it hurts the most, but given print’s dicey financial condition it may well be time to take another look whether the lines between the two need to become more blurred.

That was a message delivered last week by Martin Sorrell, WPP chief executive, to an ad seminar in New York and while the ad folks by nature have always wanted to poke their fingers into editorial and have been rightly had those fingers cut off in the past perhaps this is something that needs a second look. Editorial and advertising need to be singing from the same marketing hymn book, so perhaps the line in the sand needs moving a bit.

Regular readers will recall that last week this column reviewed the International Herald Tribune and discussed the apparent disconnect between advertising and editorial. By far the most advertising was for luxury items which implies that as far as that department is concerned the high revenue earner is being sold to advertisers. So if that is the target audience on which the newspaper is looking to make its money, then shouldn’t editorial be on that same wave length and be producing the kind of stories that demographic wants to read?

Let’s not be too coy about this – if the target is those who have the money to buy expensive Swiss watches and Cartier diamonds then do those readers really care about stories telling them that soon they may be able to buy $10 air tickets across the Atlantic? On the other hand, this writer certainly has an interest in such a story but no way is this writer going to be buying expensive Swiss watches or Cartier diamonds (sorry to she who must be obeyed!)

To an extent the IHT is already travelling that road. It has long covered in detail the main fashion weeks – Paris, Milan, London and New York – and that certainly is of most interest to those who can afford haute couture. But does its general news aim at the same group?

The IHT just spent some good money trying to get this writer in a failed attempt to subscribe. It delivered a free copy of the newspaper directly into the mailbox by 8 a.m. for a 30-day free trial. And its subscription arm, seemingly based in Hong Kong although editorial is sitting in Paris, was pretty good – during that 30-day free trial there were three letters urging a cut-rate subscription, so the follow-up was there. But in the end all the IHT got back for its trouble was its invoice with ”Cancel” written across it, with the main reason being there seemed to be a disconnect  between reader and product – the advertising certainly wasn’t of interest, and neither were most of the stories.

And yet if the IHT had won the battle and got one more subscription in Switzerland what good would that do the luxury goods advertisers who are paying the freight, for the new subscriber would not be their customer.

Sorrell told the conference that he thought ad agencies would be getting “very much more involved” on the content side. If so that should be restricted to ensuring that the editorial content is targeted at the intended ad audience, and there should be no disconnect between the two departments. That’s not too much to expect.

On the other hand, Sorrell probably wants to go further into that very dicey area where one can’t really tell if copy, or even sections, are advertising or editorial, and that’s a minefield where editorial should continue putting its foot down to prevent such  trespassing. That is still very much a no-go area, purist or not.

But those walls are, unfortunately, beginning to fall. From Australia, for instance, comes word that News Magazines (Murdoch) is offering advertisers who buy full page ads in sports magazines Alpha and Australian Golf Digest (AGD) a guaranteed picture of their products in Alpha’s “most wanted” section and the AGD Shop,  even a mention in the Alpha e-newsletter (subject to editorial approval, of course, wink-nod, etc.)

And then there is Murdoch’s The Australian newspaper where the editor of the Executive Lifestyle Section appears in the online business section on a page with a direct editorial link to an electronic shaver.

And was David Higgins, editor of Murdoch’s news.com.au, speaking for the company when he declared in a magazine interview that the traditional divisions between editorial and advertising were “a luxury of the past.” Would love to hear Murdoch’s view on that!

And is it crossing the line when Newsweek sells advertising packages to the American Petroleum Institute (API) and then, hey presto, there are Newsweek and the API hosting four forums over the past two years, the last one actually at the US Capitol in March. Newsweek says there is no problem because API doesn’t have input into editorial copy, but those who don’t like this relationship say API has brought the legitimacy of the Newsweek name next to its own for public forums, and Newsweek can perhaps get influential people to attend whereby API may not. Bottom line -- lobbyist API gets its message heard by leaning on the Newsweek name.

These points get mentioned to emphasize that when one does get started on co-operation between sales and editorial it can often lead to a slippery slope where it’s difficult to stop, but when it comes to targeting the actual print audience for what appears in print then singing from the same hymn book should apply. 

Trouble is, of course, that if you give advertising an inch (cm) then they want a yard (meter), which is why editors are paid the big bucks – to do what can be done to improve the newspaper’s profitability while at the same time safe-guarding its editorial brand.