In today's Statesman, the new "Bee" movie in which Jerry Seinfeld does the voice of the main character is prominently featured. Not only is it on the front page, just below the Statesman's name (I think that's called the masthead), it is the entire top half of the Life section, and the entire cover of the Scene insert. In each case the paper sports a picture of the Bee.
I know that McClatchey is hurting for revenue, but have they resorted to product placement? How else do you explain such a blatant promotion of a soon to be released movie?
Product placement in a newspaper would seem to be a real breach of trust by the paper. The reader wouldn't know if the paper is reporting news, or just shilling. Because of this, I doubt that the Statesman got paid off to promote the movie. Still, I'd like to know, was the Statesman ordered from on high to feature the movie as it did? Was it a local decision? What were they thinking?
3 comments:
Just an advert Alan, let it go.
Oh man, what a flash back to the Gannet days when they had a huge pic of Oprah on the front page of The Statesman strategically located to show off in their new TV shaped newspaper boxes and piggyback with a sales increase based on sensationalism rather than good reporting. I don't think this is as much a product placement as it's a blatant use by each of the the principles to enrich themselves. What we consider good reporting may not be considered good business these days. It ain't a free press in the print world anymore, it's all about the stockholders.
It truly does seem to be all about the $$. I'm certainly no expert, but I understand that newspapers by and large are profitable, but not as profitable as the investors want.
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