Coffee Break: Fine line between advertising, news continues to blur

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|ret|Clarissa French is SBJ Editor.

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|ret|On page 2 of this issue, you will find a fascinating article about the changing face of advertising, based on a news release from Noble |amp| Associates. Chairman and CEO Bob Noble provided his staff with input from Joe Cappo, former Advertising Age publisher who is now Crain Communications senior vice president. Cappo gave perspectives on the advertising industry that are highlighted in his book |quot|The Future of Advertising: New Media, New Clients, New Consumers in the Post-Television Age.|quot|

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|ret|I'll leave it to you to read the full article, which is an excellent heads up on trends.

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|ret|What I find most interesting about this piece is that it brings up an issue that we must struggle with continually: the division between paid advertising and newspaper content.

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|ret|If you believe Joe Cappo, that struggle won't get any easier in the future. The line between advertising and content specifically broadcast entertainment will become so blurred as to be nonexistent.

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|ret|In the years ahead, we may no longer see 30-second TV spots for Pepsi or Doritos; we may instead see Pepsi and Doritos worked into the script of whatever we're watching, strategically consumed by the star or prominently placed on the sets.

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|ret|This merging of sales and content is a worrisome trend for those of us in publishing.

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|ret|In print, too, I see the division between advertising and content eroding, with minimally labeled |quot|advertising supplements|quot| and euphemistic |quot|sponsored features|quot| blurring the distinctions.

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|ret|Our philosophy

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|ret|Here at SBJ, we take our ethics and the division of advertising and editorial content very seriously. As our company grows and develops, our pledge to our readers is that we will maintain that separation. You will never have to question whether what you are looking at in SBJ is paid advertising.

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|ret|Internally, SBJ draws this line in no uncertain terms, but while our company is clear on the division, the business public often is not. We continually fight the misperception that |quot|you have to advertise to get coverage in SBJ.|quot|

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|ret|Nothing could be further from the truth.

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|ret|Because we are a business-to-business niche publication, we are in a unique position: we cover business, therefore anyone we cover is a potential, past or active advertiser.

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|ret|As a result, some people will draw the conclusion that, if someone is advertising and we are also covering them, those two things were cause-and-effect or quid-pro-quo.

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|ret|Wrong.

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|ret|What we cover is based on one criterion: Is it interesting and informative for our readers? But before we can apply that criterion, we have to have something else: information.

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|ret|The companies that get the most coverage in the Business Journal are the companies that provide the most information; companies that call us and say, Hey, we're building our own facility' or We're acquiring so-and-so'; companies that send us news releases about their business, their new staff and promotions, their construction projects, their significant benchmarks.

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|ret|Our editorial relationship with companies is based on their willingness to speak frankly with us and provide relevant information and insight.

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|ret|If you're in business and you've got relevant information and insight, but we aren't talking to you, speak up! Call and tell us your news. Drop us an e-mail about an issue in your industry.

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|ret|No purchase is necessary.

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|ret|Holding the line

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|ret|In order to keep the division between paid advertisement and editorial content crystal clear, we are making some changes in our submission policy.

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|ret|For example, in the past we have always welcomed articles on financial topics from local financial planners, bankers, trust officers, insurance agents, etc., with specific restrictions.

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|ret|Because we have begun to see some of these same articles showing up in other publications' paid advertising sections, we are altering our policy on those submissions.

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|ret|Any article sent to us by a member of the business community must be exclusive to us in our market; no article we use can have been used previously, or be used in the future, in an advertising section or |quot|advertorial.|quot|

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|ret|Other than that, our existing policy remains: Any businessperson may submit an article; articles must meet our requirement for length and may not include sales pitches, may not mention the author's company, and cannot include the company phone number.

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|ret|Got an idea? Want to write a column? What are you waiting for?

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|ret|SBJ welcomes your story ideas, column ideas and letters to the editor. Call Editor Clarissa French at 417-831-3238, e-mail her at cfrench@sbj.net or fax her at 417-799-0603.

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