Special sections and the business media

Jack Shafer of Reuters writes about the Wall Street Journal Europe scandal, in which the publisher pressured reporters to write stories for a business partner, and what it means for the special sections that many business media publish.

Shafer writes, “Will the scandal go bigger or will it burn itself out in a couple of days? Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., which owns the Wall Street Journal Europe, has already copped to the journalistic sins of having a publisher promise an advertiser coverage and of leaning on reporters to produce it. This behavior is considered very, very, unclean in the world of publishing when conducted covertly. But when the advertiser-pleasing copy is produced overtly in special sections, the worst publishers are accused of is opportunism. Today, most quality newspapers assemble special sections themed to energy, transportation, education, philanthropy, investing, health, et al. These sections, which contain soft or backgrounderish copy, are propped up by lucrative ads from the major industries doing business in the theme area. So great is the publisher’s appetite for special sections that if the New York Times could persuade Eukanuba, Purina, and Hartz Ultraguard Plus Rid Worm tablets to take out gigantic ads, it would gladly print a ‘Your Dog’s Retirement’ section. Twice a year.

“The Financial Times, for example, hammers together special sections with laughable regularity. Yesterday’s FT special section, ‘Canadian Energy,’ contains big-ass ads from Chevron, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute. Are you dying to read ‘Oil shifts country’s centre of gravity’? Does ‘Technology opens far-flung possibilities’ float your boat? Then grab a copy before they all disappear.

“The articles in most special sections aren’t embarrassing or unethical as much as they’re useless. You’ll rarely find a critical article in a special section, so why bother reading? The intended audience for special sections isn’t readers, it’s advertisers. As a rule, special sections are two steps up from supplements titled ‘Advertising Supplement,’ which are written by outside writers, and two steps down from a newspaper’s regular coverage. There are good special sections out there — I’m thinking of the ones that run in the Economist — but most of them suck.”