torontosun.com crashed tonight.
At 10:59 p.m., we got this message:
Oops! This page appears broken. DNS Error - Server cannot be found.
The other Suns were not down.
It was still down at 4.20 a.m.
Major down time.
Friday, 16 September 2011
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Speaking of the Toronto Sun crashing, it hit bottom (again) today (Sept 25). I'm not talking about the error-filled, one-sided, anti-Liberal multi-page rant (disclosure: I've never voted for Dalton McGuinty and never will). I'm not talking about the puff piece planted in the paper to boost the reputation of hamfisted city councillor Doug Ford. I'm not even talking about the Sun rerunning stories that ran earlier in the week.
ReplyDeleteI'm referring to the selling out of the Sunshine Girl.
Today's Girl was wearing a T-shirt with big logo across the front. The caption actually mentioned the brand of boots she was wearing which (surprise!) was the same brand as the t-shirt logo. And look! By sheer coincidence, right next to the Girl, there's a half-page ad for the exact same brand of boots.
There's nothing wrong with the Sunshine Girl promoting a charity or appropriate fundraiser. But turning it into an outright commercial ad?!
Back in 2000, I spoke with two managers and one vice-president at the Sun: if an advertiser wanted to use the Girl to (subtlety) promote its interests, (e.g. wear a t-shirt with their logo on it), it should cost *at least* $10,000, with the girl getting $1,000. The Sun folks just laughed and said they would never sell the Girl.
I pointed out several examples when the Girl was used to promote commercial products, as a result of a *direct request* from either the Sun CEO, Sun publisher or other senior Sun manager. All of those were done as personal favours for friends of those Sun executives. It benefitted no one but those Sun executives and their corporate friends.
Sun Media interests before readers' interest.
Let's recap: the Sun nows sells out the Sunshine Girl, the front page, the homes section, the auto section, the travel section, some of the sports section and some of the news section. What's left?
It's time the entire Toronto Sun newspaper came with the disclaimer "Advertisement".
There was more trouble at the Sun on the web today. Slam Sports has been defaulting to the mobile version when viewed on your a regular desktop.... perfect if I had a 4" wide computer monitor!
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