Where is the line between editorial independence and the advertisers who make a media publication viable? Forbes, DMNews reports (thanks Online Journalism.com), has started included ’embedded ads’ in its news stories via Vibrant Media, a specialist in contextual advertising. These ads are links matching related words — car, house, music, that sort of thing. With nearly … Read more
For those of you who can’t get enough Loose Wire (yeah, I know there are millions of you out there, even if you don’t admit it) you’ll be delighted to know it now appears on the BBC World Service radio. Well, sporadically, anyway. I appear, reading one of my columns in my customary monotone, on … Read more
Perhaps we journalists need better tools to find out the stories we’re looking for. According to Ed Cone, a posting on an aviation website late on Monday may have been the first evidence of the Kerry/Edwards tie-up: A poster to the US Airways forum called ‘aerosmith’ said he/she had spotted John Kerry’s plane in a … Read more
Forget Jayson Blair, Jack Kelley and Stephen Glass. What happens when you can’t even trust the words of a food critic? Bart Ripp, restaurant critic of the Tacoma News Tribune, has quit ”after 32 years in the newspaper business, 15 of them here as a features writer, historian, postcard savant and restaurant critic.” Now, according to … Read more
PR folk and journalists have an uncertain relationship. Journalists know they’re being spun, but PR people can be helpful, providing fast access to new sources, evaluation units and story ideas. But if you’re in PR, and you claim victory, make sure you get your facts right. I recently read on PRNewswire about how I had … Read more