A regional publisher has been criticised for ditching sports news from the back page of its daily titles in favour of an advert.
All daily titles in the Newsquest group recently published a full-page Adidas advert featuring Olympic diver Tom Daley on their back pages instead of their usual sports coverage.
They included The Argus, Brighton, the South Wales Argus, the Oxford Mail, The Press, York, and the Northern Echo.
A journalist from one of the titles told HTFP that the ad risked “damaging the papers’ credibility.”
He said: “Editorial staff, particularly those in sport, cannot understand why the back page of their papers – which are the shop window for sport in the same way the front page is for news – have been given over entirely to an advertisement, and are extremely concerned about where this could lead.
“We fear it risks damaging the credibility of Newsquest titles among their readership and gives the impression that the most valuable pages in a newspaper are up for grabs to advertisers as long as the money is right.
“While we appreciate that newspapers need advertising revenue, this is a step too far and smacks of journalistic values being prostituted.
“It also begs the question of what would have happened if a major sports story meriting a back-page lead had broken the day before the entire back page was taken up by an advertisement for a multinational company which has no links to the circulation area of these titles.”
Newsquest chief executive Paul Davidson was not available for comment.
However one senior editorial figure in the company told HTFP that the ad was on a sporting theme, had been “tastefully done,” and had not generated any complaints to his newspaper.
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Tell you what, let’s not run the ad and try to find the revenue elsewhere.
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Newsquest is so desperate it would sell its mother for a few bob.
I’ve even seen some local titles publishing half-page ads from eBay boosting its own local advertising, despite staff objections. Surely Newsquest shooting itself in the foot big-time…
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it’s all about the revenues…… 40% loss of revenue in last five years and still relying on traditional sources for more than 90% of current revenue…. you’ve got to try something.
What else would you suggest ?
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While I understand your concern, newspapers have to take every penny they can these days.
It sounds like a one-off – or a rarity – and the fact is back page is not like front page. The front page faces the buying public and so is a shop window of the contents inside.
If there’s something good on the back page, plug it on the front.
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Tell you what, Dave, let’s cut back even more on covering sport and see how many people continue to buy the paper.
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I am the person responsible for this campaign and what you fail to mention is that Newsquest were exclusive editorial partners with Adidas Bodycare, running activity over 12 weeks with exclusive interviews with Tom Daley and 6 other Team GB athletes, adding vibrant content to our sports pages with an overiding objective to get local people involved in playing new sports.
They gave away £1000 of Adidas equipment to support local grass roots sport and the back page that has attracted so much attention was the final part of the campaign.. All editors had the option to refuse the position or move the ad if a local story broke.
The outside back page has become a popular advertising site in the national press and is something used very infrequently by Newsquest and only ever for a relevant client.
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Newsquest Responds Shock Horror …. however, any subs left out there to correct the grammar and spelling errors ….
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As I’m sure Graham Ellis well knows there is no longer a Newsquest editor out there who would dare pull a full page ad for any story…
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big ads on the back page or more job losses down the line….. tough choice.
Stop being so precious.
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Good on Graham for responding – and the snarky comments about grammar say more about Long Gone and reasons why Long Gone is hopefully just that (as far as newspapers are concerned anyway).
Done every day, a back page full page ad would damage a newspaper, but done as a one off i can’t see the harm. It could be that the ad actually helped sell more papers – how many readers really pick up a paper for the back page lead (and nothing else) given they can normally read most of the lead on the back page? At least with a full page ad on the back, it’s harder to stand in the shop reading the sports content on inside pages. Just a thought.
As for the daft comment in the top story ‘it gives the impression that the most valuable pages in a newspaper are up for grabs to advertisers as long as the money is right.’ That’s newspapers and it’s always been the case – it’s just that the amount is lower these days.
If it was me, I might have asked the sports editor or editor what was going on before ringing HTFP….
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Thanks for your comments Andy. The activity was fully briefed to all Editors & sports Editors, (some of whom rightly moved the insertion date to suit their news content) Whoever is quoted in the article is clearly so far out of the loop they had no awareness of what was an exclusive 3 month editorial partnership with specific local objectives.
I have worked tirelessly to bring significant advertiser revenue to Newsquests sports pages (the likes of Red Bull, Heinz, Budweiser, Spar). Based on the quality and unique nature of our content.
The back of the newspaper is largely an “ad free zone” so I really thought that investment from national advertisers would be welcomed in order to help sustain our great coverage of local sport.
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House Rules:
‘big ads on the back page or more job losses down the line….. tough choice.
Stop being so precious. ‘
Good grief, do you really believe that ad income will go towards saving lower order jobs?
How quaint… and naive
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@ivylikes well how about the paper turns down the revenue and we’ll see how long people last shall we?
If the revenue saves one job it will have been worth it. And if not then who cares?
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Some JP papers went through a brief phase years ago of having one of their best news stories on the back and no sport. It didn’t last.
Sorry to be dull but I can see both sides of this. These are truly desperate times for papers financially and the income is needed.
But their excellent sport coverage is saving papers like the Brighton Argus from even faster sales losses and taking it off the back does not help sales.
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