Is the Press on Drugs?

From: Mark J. Welch [Adbility] <MarkWelch_at_adbility.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1999 07:28:57 -0600 (CST)

I am seeing more and more "news" articles recently about
"non-event" news, including an article today on c|net
reporting that Audio Book Club had bought some banner
advertising on MSN and Hotmail.
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,31870,00.html?adbility

I have seen several news articles in different publications
about vendors who entered into "deals" with Amazon.com, but
on careful review you see that all that happened is that the
vendor joined 150,000 others as "affiliates" of Amazon.com.
This is not unique to "online" media like c|net, but extends
to traditional print publications, including computer and
internet trade press as well as regular business magazines
and the business pages of daily newspapers.

Of course, you can't fault the companies for issuing press
releases: they want coverage. But the reporters and editors
who turn these into "news" articles must have mush for
brains. What possible news value is there in one
advertising deal of unstated size, or when one company joins
a commission-based advertising ("affiliate") program just
like thousands of others have done?

And these "news" articles do have an impact: day traders,
who don't really understand that nothing special has
happened, trade these stocks up. That's why these press
releases get issued.

When I went to journalism school (was it really so long
ago?), I was taught that one important function of the
"press" is to distinguish real news from PR crap. I am
sorely disappointed by the state of reporting about the
internet, and about electronic commerce in particular.

-- Mark J. Welch, Web Site Banner Advertising [Adbility]
-- http://www.markwelch.com/bannerad/
-- Ad rates: http://www.markwelch.com/bannerad/baf_spon.htm
-- (925) 462-8483 voice - Pleasanton, California


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Received on Thu Feb 04 1999 - 10:53:05 CST