Wednesday 8 July 2009

Calgary noodles 2

Was the Calgary Sun's front page Chinese food ad on Newseum the Washington, D.C., media museum's fault?

TSF received this comment from Martin Hudson, managing editor of the paper:

"If you ever left your mother's basement and got a job instead of blindly ripping everything you know nothing about, you would be aware that newspapers sometimes print promo copies at the end of the run. This front was picked up in error by Newseum. Check your facts before you run your mouth.

Martin Hudson
Managing Editor"

It is a huge relief to hear the Calgary Sun has not sold out its front page (full wrap, or no wrap) to promote the sale of egg rolls and noodles.

But how can you lay the blame on Newseum when editors submit their front pages to the museum?

As for the snide comments about mothers, basements and running our mouths, we are not impressed when they are coming from the managing editor of a major daily newspaper.

8 comments:

  1. Wow, TSF has no problem ripping Sun publications for factual errors, but has a problem when the tables are turned. Good for you, Martin!

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  2. Where is our factual error? The front page Chinese eatery ad was, in fact, represented on Newseum as the front page of the Calgary Sun.

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  3. The sad part about the Calgary Sun's "front page" is that many present and former Sun staffers are willing - and quite justifiably so - to believe Sun Media and PKP would stoop so low in the name of a few extra bucks.

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  4. Your factual error is that you put up a post that clearly created the impression that the paper hit the streets with a noodle ad on its front page. It didn't. Man up and apologize for the mistake. You know -- like a newspaper would do.

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  5. Me thinks Mr. Hudson doth protest too much. His paper screws up and TSF is to blame? And why the personal attack? How many bloggers even have basements, or mothers?
    Martin should look on the bright side: the advertiser got far greater distribution than they ever imagined.

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  6. I'd comment on this situation but I'm in the basement and my mother forbade me from doing so.

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  7. Mr. Hudson’s ad-hominem rant amounts to little more than a non-explanation explanation. OK, so there's "promo copies" printed at the end of the run. Where do those "promo copies" end up? In the recycling bin? In the newsroom? In the restaurant? Or out on the street to be sold along with the "non-promo copies? And how does a “promo copy” get to the point where it ends up as a PDF on an international website? And before Mr. Hudson fires off another salvo of his best mother/basement/underwear metaphors, I’m not being sarcastic – I really don’t know what happens to a “promo copy” and I really want to know.
    Here’s why: A few months ago, the Edmonton Sun did virtually the same thing – pimping out their front page photo spot with a big bank ad (RBC, I think?). At this point, I should mention that I didn’t discover the ad on TSF or Newseum or the Sun website. Instead, I found it the old-fashioned way - I put some clothes on, walked up out of my mother’s basement and purchased the Sun from a vending box on the corner. As the harsh glare of the sun above sizzled my pasty complexion, the front-page bank ad glared back harshly from the other Sun in front of me. That means one of two things – either it was a “promo copy” that managed to slip past the press-room’s defence or else it was the product of a planned play. I’ll leave it up to Mr. Hudson to speculate, but it’s all beside the point, anyway.
    The point is this, and it’s a sad one: We’ve now reached a stage with Quebecor that nobody would be surprised if they would try full-frontal advertising. Ideas that would have seemed ridiculous, implausible or merely tacky five or 10 years ago are no longer beyond the realm of possibility with Quebecor. To be fair, I don’t expect Quebecor or Mr. Hudson to apologize for that – not in today’s harsh economy. But I do think they should be prepared to ‘fess up to it when the basement-dwellers dare to point it out.

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  8. The same bank ad was wrapped around the Sun at least twice here in Toronto in recent months (and i believe the Star as well).

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