Logo

Longform Ads Pull in Revenue but Raise Ethics Questions

Jan 20, 2010  •  Post A Comment

By Jon Lafayette

The package is presented like something you’d see on the local news rather than like a traditional infomercial. Sometimes it resembles a lengthy feature story; other times it’s an interview with a local doctor or businessman, or a roundup of local tourist destinations.

But if viewers listen closely and pay attention to the disclaimers, they’ll realize that they are being pitched a product or service in programming that’s paid for by advertisers.

Such product placement deals are being used increasingly to raise revenues for TV stations pinched by the recession. But they’re also raising questions about ethics and preserving the credibility of local newscasts.

“Sponsorships are problematic for all sorts of newsrooms, not just broadcast newsrooms,” said Kelly McBride, ethics group leader for the Poynter Institute, who stressed that stations ought to have clear policies to avoid the appearance that they are selling their content.

But while most broadcast executives say there’s a clear line at their station between news content that can’t be bought, and other programming that incorporates paid messages from sponsors, “from the audience perspective, it’s very hard to tell the difference,” McBride said. “They assume the worst.”

Last year, KRON-TV in San Francisco caught a lot of grief for airing paid advertising segments. Mother Jones magazine described the segments as having “the look and feel of a real news-talk show, complete with a news ticker scrolling past underneath and Chyrons [the graphic tags that identify the person speaking] that are pretty much indistinguishable from those you’d see on regular news segments.”

Brian Greif, the independent station’s new general manager, said that its move into locally produced paid programming has “added quite a bit of revenue across the group, and at KRON it’s a significant part of what we do now. It’s been a success.”

Greif said KRON views paid programming as a premium product, so it asks more for a 2-minute paid segment than it would charge for four 2-minute spots, but he said the station did not have a specific rate card for the segments.

As a former news director and VP for news at KRON parent Young Broadcasting, which is working its way out of bankruptcy, Greif said he may be more sensitive to news values than other executives. Because of that, the station has “made a number of adjustments over the years to make sure that it fits not only the needs of the advertisers but the needs of the viewers as well.”

For example, he’s phasing out the use of news talent in the paid segments. Former weekend anchor Vicki Liviakis, who hosts commercial segments “Medical Mondays” and “Living Green,” no longer does news, focusing instead on the commercial production side. Two other medical segments continue to be hosted by morning anchor Daryn Folsom because her participation was part of the contract.

KRON continues to experiment, using audience feedback to gauge what viewers feel is acceptable, Grief said. The station also makes sure that it is more than complying with Federal Communications Commission rules regarding sponsorship and payola. Noting that product placement is skyrocketing, the FCC is considering comments about changing its rules for sponsorship identification and embedded advertising.

Greif added that local rival, NBC-owned KNTV, had hired away one of his commercial producers and has begun airing similar programs. KNTV President and General Manager Rich Cerussi declined to comment.

While stations try to draw a line between news and advertorials, sponsored segments are popular with some advertisers precisely because of the positive rub-off they get from the station’s news credibility.

“Because they have a reporter that comes out and actually does the segment, it’s almost like having an endorsement from a radio disc jockey,” said Julia Tyndall, marketing manger for La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries of Atlanta, who last year appeared on “The Daily 2” segments at the end of newscasts on Cox-owned WSB-TV in Atlanta, touting the store chain’s home design service.

Shannon Walshe, a former anchor at the station now doing some of its infomercials, interviewed her.

Tyndall said La-Z-Boy spends about $50,000 a week advertising on WSB and that the “The Daily 2” segments cost an additional $2,500 to $3,000, including production expenses. The spots resulted in people calling to make appointments and a noticeable increase in Web site hits coming to the stores from online apps on wsbtv.com, the station’s site.

As far as John Friedmann, sales manager at WSB, is concerned, “there’s no news involvement at all,” in “The Daily 2.” “It’s got its own open and close, so basically it’s a 2-minute program unto itself.” The segments are not even introduced by the news anchors, he said.

The 2-minute WSB segments, which run following the newscast at 12:56 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8:56 a.m. on Saturday, are proving popular. Friedmann said that after a slow start, “The Daily 2” began gathering traction. Now there’s a sponsor for the segment every day.

“I think it’s exceeded everybody’s expectations, Friedmann said.

Media General’s WSPA-TV in the Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C., and Asheville, N.C., market, has been creating local shows that rely on product placement to replace syndicated programming. The shows, including “Seen on 7” and “Your Carolina,” are produced by a programming department that is staffed separately from the news department, according to Phil Lane, VP and GM of WSPA.

Viewers shouldn’t confuse these shows, which tell viewers about products for sale and where to buy them, with the station’s top-rated newscasts, Lane said.

“There’s an obvious distinction between the two. It’s not done on the news set; it’s not done with news anchors,” Lane said. One show is shot in downtown Greenville at Michelin on Main, a museum/retail location where the station has a high-definition studio.

“It was our idea from our staff as a way to control costs, save jobs and fill a need for local content and local programming,” he said. The economics are compelling. “It’s a significant savings from what we pay for syndicated programming.”

And it generates more revenue because the station can sell more commercial inventory.
“It’s a win-win on both sides,” Lane said.

The trend is also beginning to attract national advertisers. Kevin Gallagher, executive VP and local activation director at media buying agency Starcom, said he’s put together some deals for clients and expects to do more this year.

Stations are “willing to be more creative in an effort to compete for those limited dollars that the clients have and bend the rules or even break the rules that maybe existed before,” Gallagher said.

53 Comments

  1. I personally think this is bad news. We have had such a slide in journalistic integrity since the Walter Cronkite days, we really don’t know what to believe anymore. News organizations having to cater to the advertisers is problem enough. But presenting ads as editorial is a new low.

  2. Great post. All good points. I enjoyed reading it. Also to the point if you are prepared to check it out: Great Abs

  3. Approx six million individuals exist on our earth, 3 quarters have read the bible. One human being preaching in one country, began it, with just word of mouth. Bloggers have the technology with which to reach all of those people, all this at your fingertips, you can change anything, go for it bad boys!!!!!!

  4. I was very pleased to find this site.I wanted to thank you for this great read I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.

  5. Really nice post here – I don’t know why you don’t just get the most out of these tools whilst they are free.

  6. I was very pleased to find this site.I wanted to thank you for this great read I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.

  7. Thanks for your helpful Post, I hope you have a good day!

  8. very good article,thans for your sharing

  9. Talking about the stock exchange is always interesting and enlightening. I’ll wait for the next posting. Thank you.

  10. I was very pleased to find this site.I wanted to thank you for this great read I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.

  11. Excellent job.

  12. Thank you for a great post

  13. Mother Jones was right on about that Kron incident – it’s freedom of the press gone too far. I mean, one can’t even call it press at that level.

  14. Excellent job.

  15. Good post, thanks

  16. Great post!

  17. Thank you for a great post

  18. Good post, thanks

  19. Great blog, appreciate the effort put into this post! Thanks! 😀

  20. You are such an amazing writer. Wishing you a strength and peace that surpasses all understanding as you continue to walk the high road … you are amazing, and I honor you for being YOU! You represent grace and dignity … with a smile that melts anyone blessed to be on the receiving end of it. God Bless you Always, Carrie!!!!

  21. Love all the opinions expressed here! How is everyone? Love how everyone expresses whatr they feel 🙂

  22. Kudos to you! This is a really good blog here and I love your style of writing. How did you get so good at blogging?

  23. Interesting thoughts here. I appreciate you taking the time to share them with us all. It’s people like you that make my day 🙂

  24. Between me and my husband we’ve owned more MP3 players over the years than I can count, including Sansas, iRivers, iPods (classic & touch), the Ibiza Rhapsody, etc. But, the last few years I’ve settled down to one line of players. Why? Because I was happy to discover how well-designed and fun to use the underappreciated (and widely mocked) Zunes are.

  25. Wow, amazing blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? you make blogging look easy.

  26. Wow, amazing blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? you make blogging look easy.

  27. I love the way you write and also the theme on your blog. Did you code this yourself or was it done by a professional? I’m very very impressed.

  28. Amazing freakin blog here. I almost cried while reading it!

  29. Amazing freakin blog here. I almost cried while reading it!

  30. Thanks for your insight for the great written piece. I am glad I have taken the time to read this.

  31. This is good info! Where else can if ind out more?? Who runs this joint too? Keep up the good work 🙂

  32. Hey how are you doing? I just wanted to stop by and say that it’s been a pleasure reading your blog. I have bookmarked your website so that I can come back & read more in the future as well. plz do keep up the quality writing

  33. This is my new i visit here. I found numerous entertaining stuff in ones blog, especially its debate. From the tons of comments against your articles, I guess I am not on your own having all the amusement here! Keep up the superb work.

  34. I just subscribed to your RSS feed after reading this article! Can you put up more about this subject in future articles?

  35. I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you create this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz reply back as I’m looking to create my own blog and would like to know wheere u got this from. thanks

  36. Interesting thoughts here. I appreciate you taking the time to share them with us all. It’s people like you that make my day 🙂

  37. I also use wordpress for my website. The best thing is that comments add additional content. By the way, your chosen design suits perfetcly what is site about.

  38. Love all the opinions expressed here! How is everyone? Love how everyone expresses whatr they feel 🙂

  39. Thanks for your insight for the great written piece. I am glad I have taken the time to read this.

  40. Love the blog here. Nice colors. I am definitely staying tuned to this one. Hope to see more.

  41. You make blogging look like a walk in the park! I’ve been trying to blog daily but I just cant find writing material.. you’re an inspiration to me and i’m sure many others!

  42. Nice!! Great Ifo. Great People. Great Blog. Thank you for all the great sharing that is being done here.

  43. I really like the colors here on your blog. did you design this yourself or did you outsource it to a professional?

  44. Thanks much for the great document. I am glad I’ve taken the time to learn this.

  45. Nice blog here! Also your website loads up fast! What host are you using? I wish my website loaded up as fast as yours lol

  46. Keep focusing on your blog. I love how we can all express our feelings. This is an extremely nice blog here 🙂

  47. Wonderful writing.. Going to want a bit of time to examine your story!

  48. Kudos to you! This is a really good blog here and I love your style of writing. How did you get so good at blogging?

  49. I like this information presented and it has given me some sort of inspiration to have success for some reason, so keep up the good work.

  50. Kudos to you! This is a really good blog here and I love your style of writing. How did you get so good at blogging?

  51. Thank you for the interesting piece of work. I will be taking advantage of the amazing information on the web site. I will be returning!

  52. I would like to start my own blog one day. This was a really nice blog that you made here. Keep up the success 😛

  53. Aw, this was a really nice post. In thought I want to put in writing like this moreover – taking time and precise effort to make a very good article… however what can I say… I procrastinate alot and by no means seem to get one thing done.

    https://www.webkinz.com/bumper.php?clicktag=https://google.com/maps?cid=14966538215767289731

Leave a Reply to Carroll B. Merriman Cancel Reply

Email (will not be published)