Categories: OLD Media Moves

When a business story appears the same day as an ad

Adrian Vore, the reader’s representative at the San Diego Union-Tribune, writes about how an ad for a luxury condominium appeared the same day as a story about the condo.

Vore writes, “Business editor Diana McCabe said neither she nor Showley knew a Pacific Gate spadea ad was running that day. Reporters and their editors are rarely aware of which ads are scheduled to run or where they are going to be placed. Ads have no bearing on their decisions, which is the way it should be.

“McCabe said she believes the story did not cross any lines. ‘It’s the biggest and most expensive condo project yet downtown, and we’ve been covering that development very closely,’ McCabe said. ‘Nat Bosa has built many projects downtown and has several more in the works, so we tend to keep an eye on what he’s doing. He often starts projects when others hold back. We included the contact information because it was an event the public could attend. (We often get email or phone calls requesting that information.)’

“Reporters and editors regularly produce stories on businesses or people that can result in positive publicity. But they first weigh if the story has news value — is it interesting, compelling, different, trend-setting, for instance. Publicity is not their concern.

“‘We look at scope and importance,’ McCabe said. ‘In this case, the developer has a large presence downtown, and this was one of the premier buildings coming online. It is highly visible.'”

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.

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