Newspaper innovation expert takes issue with NAA promotional campaign
Juan Antonio Giner, newspaper consultant and author of the What’s Next: Innovations in Newspapers blog takes issue with the art used with a new ad campaign by the The Newspaper Association of America:
The idea is excellent. The choice of this illustration is wrong, though:
Multimedia journalism is not funny; it’s something more serious than this.
This kind of misrepresentation is the last thing that we need to enlist our newsrooms in this new media landscape.
A press release from the NAA describes the ads:
The headline of the first ad reads, “Is Newspaper New Media Or Old Media? Yes.”
Accompanying copy: “Today’s newspaper is a category-defying, media-blending creation that takes readers beyond the printed word and image into the sights and sounds of interactivity. Its biggest innovation is as plain as the 17” LCD monitor on your desk: newspaper Web sites. Like paper-and-ink editions, newspaper sites have earned a reputation as the most dependable source for local news and information.”
The second ad is headlined by the phrase, “Study Shows 18-To-24-Year-Olds Like Ink On Paper Too.”
Copy reads: “Newspapers popular with the earbud crowd, what’s up with that? Apparently they’ve discovered the multi-media appeals of today’s newspapers…Newspaper sites give younger readers the immediacy and speed they like on the Internet. Plus better in-depth coverage of local news than anywhere else on the web. So while new technologies have splintered audiences for TV and radio, they’ve actually expanded readership of newspapers.”
The Martin Agency of Richmond, Va. , worked with NAA to develop creative for the campaign.
The Martin Agency, huh? Those are the guys famous for the Geico caveman TV commercials. Perhaps we should consider ourselves lucky they didn’t use the cavemen for this campaign.
Newspapers: So easy a caveman could read them.
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Find — and set a bookmark for — Juan Antonio’s Innovations blog here.
September 27th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
I don’t get what his issue is with the illustration. I might be missing something here, but it doesn’t strike me as making fun of multimedia journalism. And the line “Multimedia journalism isn’t funny; it’s something more serious than this” just strikes me as being a little too uptight. I mean, imagine if Geico looked at the cavemen ads and said, “Low-cost auto insurance isn’t funny; it’s serious stuff.”
September 27th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
If multimedia journalism isn’t funny, we should try harder.
September 28th, 2007 at 10:39 am
Even before I saw this illustration, the image of convergence and multi-media journalism has been Al Franken’s weekend update reporter who was the one man TV news crew with the giant satellite dish attached to his head. I guess his character was pretty much just a broadcast guy, but I think this illustration may have had that character in mind.