Ad Age editor Donaton loves NYPost biz section

Advertising Age editor Scott Donaton praised the New York Post’s business section in a column posted on the publication’s web site on Sunday, noting that it operates distinctly from the rest of the newspaper and writes about stories that are later covered by other media.

Donaton wrote, “I’m talking here specifically about the paper’s business coverage, which often is criticized by other business journalists as being gossipy or lacking credibility. But the business section actually employs some talented and hard-digging journalists who regularly break big news. And it is an operation distinct from the paper’s frighteningly downmarket and screechy news pages. That, in fact, is the brilliance of the New York Post. It simultaneously serves gory crime stories to a blue-collar audience and gossip, business news and sports to a more upscale reader-power players on both coasts.”

Later, Donaton noted, “On a recent Saturday, the Post splashed across its front page a story about the relationship between the CFO of a major media company and a woman accused of running a prostitution ring. BlackBerries buzzed from the Hamptons to Greenwich to Malibu-Omigod, can you believe it?-as word spread through the pop-culture industries.

“That day, the story found its way onto the radio, and by Monday and Tuesday it was in other papers, on the Web and on TV. But many of the stories were about the Post story, in some cases exploring whether the CFO was a legitimate target or whether the paper had blown the whole thing out of proportion. Ignored was the fact that these reports were doing the same thing the Post had done: spreading word to their audiences about this man’s personal life.”

Read more here.