Friday 12 November 2010

Students 4 ads?

In this week's WTF development, TSF presents Northumberland Today's answer to Sun Media ad department cutbacks:


All participants receive a coupon for free food, the winner a gift certificate - and a lesson in how to run a community newspaper on the cheap. 

We all know how open competitions for Sun Media's advice column worked out. 

And citizen journalists feeding Sun Media free tips, photos and video footage? Don't get us started on that free content bonanza.

FYI: Northumberland Today is a three-in-one Sun Media newspaper that merged the Port Hope Evening Guide, Cobourg Star and Colborne Chronicle in February 2009.

14 comments:

  1. See how efficient you can be when you get rid of the union? Expect a pagination contest next, followed by a 'be a volunteer carrier for a week' interactive reader experience.

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  2. Calling all high school students. Do you know how to spell savvy?

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  3. I think I was at Grossman's tavern when the first meeting to start the sun was formed from old Telegram employees.

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  4. this is pretty sick, but the production artists are paid like it's a highschool job anyway so....

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  5. That's hilarious!

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  6. Seriously people, I've been selling this type of ad program since 1988. It has paid a lot of salaries.

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  7. Will work for food stamps. Great lesson for today's students.

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  8. Wouldn’t it be nice if the kids of the recently laid off production staff entered and got free food.

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  9. Calm down. Former Thomson papers in our part of Ontario, as well as several weeklies, have been doing this for decades. It involves local school kids and gets them engaged with the local newspaper. I always thought it was goofy idea and am surprised that it's still being done today.

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  10. Not just a goofy idea, it's a 'savy' one ... whatever that means. (Who really needs to know how to spell, anyway?)

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  11. Savy: (sey • vee) - adjective
    1. Pertaining to the saving of money.
    2. Being thrifty or economical.
    Example: Laying-off staff and using free child labour is a savy idea.
    See also: cheap, penny-pinching, Quebecor.

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  12. This was done at the Niagara Falls Review also.

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  13. RE 16 Nov. 6:14 p.m.: Too funny!
    It's true design-an-ad has been done for decades - but it's usually with elementary school students, to try to hook young readers and involve the community. Where I worked, we sometimes had two or even three entries!

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  14. Toronto Star is a running a design-the-front-page contest for its December 24 edition. The contest title is a bit of an exaggeration. The contest is for folks to create a winter-in-Toronto themed image that will somehow be displayed on the Dec. 24 front. The Star is paying $2500 to the winner. Second and third place also get cash but the others get nothing, not even food coupons.

    Yes, the Toronto Star article promoting this contest also has the obligatory spelling mistake.

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