Has WS compromised editorial integrity with ads in the gutter?

What's a gutter?

What editorial integrity?

Read on:

From today's NY Times:

In the June 15 issue of Wine Spectator, Newton Vineyard purchased a series of ads on a narrow slice of the page that is known picturesquely as “the gutter” — the space, normally blank and white, between the binding and the first column of text.

Each of the four gutter ads for Newton Vineyard of St. Helena, Calif., says: “To find a wine of this quality, you have to look a little harder.” The slogan is topped by a wine bottle about the size of a multivitamin and the address of the vintner’s Web site.

“We came up with the idea that a good wine is hard to find, and then we thought, what if we could find a place in the magazine that was hard to find?” said Morgan Halme, a copywriter with the Los Angeles office of Dentsu America.

But Wine Spectator — which describes one South African cabernet in the current issue as having notes of “grilled beef, charcoal, hot tar and truffle” — had to be won over. “At first they said, ‘It’s not for sale,’ ” Mr. Halme said. “They thought it might compromise editorial or clutter the page.”

But a statement from Dentsu boasts that the ads “look as if they are integrated into editorial.”

“It’s interesting that they’re bragging about having pulled a fast one,” said Roy Peter Clark, vice president of the Poynter Institute, a journalism school. “Instead of being transparent about the separation between editorial and advertising content, there is an attempt to blur distinctions.”

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[Robin Garr]

“It’s interesting that they’re bragging about having pulled a fast one,” said Roy Peter Clark, vice president of the Poynter Institute, a journalism school. “Instead of being transparent about the separation between editorial and advertising content, there is an attempt to blur distinctions.”[/i]

Roy Peter Clark is a great guy. I'd be on his side no matter who he was bashing ... of course, the real question here is whether the Speck EVER had any editorial integrity.

This battle is pretty much lost, though, with many American newspapers now running ads across the bottom of main content pages (even the front page) that project up into the editorial copy and look like news material. Why should the Speck be any different than most Gannett newspapers?

The NYT has the audacity to talk about integrity? They wouldn't know a balanced story if it hit them in the keyboard.

It's certainly wrong to blur the line between editorial content and adverts Get you fresh bread from Scuttles bakery. It does lessen the integrity of the material. Have you tried those scones? They're dee-lish-us! . Definitely pulled a fast one.

What's a gutter? Where my mind normally resides.

What editorial integrity? From the WineSpec...ha!!



But a statement from Dentsu boasts that the ads “look as if they are integrated into editorial.”

Kansas colloquialism for "bull$hit"

When I saw it, I thought it was awfully clever form of advertising. But I highly doubt that anyone who observed them associated them w/ the adjacent editorial matter. Dentsu's boasting is nothing but hot air..exactly what you expect from advirtising folks.
Tom

[David M. Bueker]

It's the freaking Wine Spectator for crying out loud. Can we please have real debate about real integrity issues in this country????

Alas for journalism. I miss it.

What page(s) is/are they on? Have looked. Maybe it's not for idiots like me!

What page(s) is/are they on? Have looked. Maybe it's not for idiots like me!

It was the issue that came out in early June, as I recall. About a month ago.
Tom

WS is what it is.... I don't get the constant need to be attacking them....you either like the mag or you don't....but they aren't likely to change.... I do like Matt Kramer, whatever else I might think (for example, what is it with all the food stuff at the very beginning of each issue...and coffee...I don't need that)....and I doubt that Matt is shaped by the advertisers....