Categories: OLD Media Moves

Fortune publishes profile of fictional character

Shareen Pathak of Digiday writes about how Fortune has published a profile of Lex Luthor Jr., the fictional son of the fictional supervillain (and the arch-nemesis of Superman), who will appear in next year’s “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.”

Pathak writes, “The profile, which is a flattering look at Alexander Joseph Luthor, Jr., a ‘wunderkind’ who took over LexCorp after his father, Lex Luthor, passed away in 2000, offers a few clues about the upcoming Superman movie as well — Luthor Jr. has, for example, a ‘world-famous collection of meteorite crystals’ in his office.

“There is no byline on the article, which features a photo of actor Jesse Eisenberg as Luthor. It mentions that Luthor is the youngest person to be named Fortune’s Businessperson of the Year and was included on the publisher’s list of the ‘World’s 50 Greatest Leaders.’

“It’s an unorthodox way to market a movie — most content marketing from publishers has had its roots in reality, such as The New York Times’ work for Netflix’s ‘Orange is the New Black,’ which discussed female incarceration rates. Previous content marketing from Fortune, done in collaboration with an organization of insurance agents, focused on providing retirement and financial advice.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.