Business section story refers readers to ad in next day's paper

Ray Stern of the Phoenix New Times, an alternative weekly in Arizona, writes about a story in the Arizona Republic’s business section on Saturday about retailer Macy’s that mentioned to readers that they could get more information in an ad in Sunday’s paper.

Stern writes, “That made me wonder — was publication of the article by business reporter Cathryn Creno part of the deal to sell a big ad that probably cost five figures to run?

“No way, says Kathy Tulumello, editor of the Republic’s business section.

“‘I don’t put my pages for sale that way,’ Tulumello says. ‘There’s no big, concerted effort here.’

“Still, with regard to the wording in the story that directs people to an ad, ‘we probably could have done better about that,’ Tulumello admits.

“The fact is, too many articles in newspapers these days are little more than re-writes of press releases that were put out by businesses with a direct monetary interest in seeing an article published.”

Read more here.