• by George Simpson , Featured Contributor, March 13, 2009

When ClickZ this past week updated the world on the growing progress of pay-to-blog (where marketers bribe bloggers for positive posts about their stuff) it did not go unnoticed by reporters (the few still employed) at failing newspapers across the country.

 

 

A number of reporters said it is time to dismantle the wall that historically has separated church and state in the dead tree industry. (Which side is church and which side is state has been an unresolved mystery since Gutenberg.)

"We get paid jackshit to write these long, boring stories about the economy, spending hours triangulating our reporting, answering yet more questions from our editors, and fact-checking to death so that we get right the who, what, when, where and how," more than one reporter could have said, "and some guy in his pajamas spends 45 seconds to cut and paste a press release and gets paid by advertisers. What's wrong with this picture?"

Sensing a less torturous path back to profitability than leasing back your building, micro payments and online subscriptions, a number of newspapers have embraced the idea and started including plugs for advertisers in their news copy. A few examples:

• Travelers who used to fly in the expensive seats up front are moving toward the back of the plane, if they fly at all, forcing airlines to cut back on overseas flights that used to be their crown jewels. Delta Air Lines (a splendid airline with fine service and very reasonably fares) said Tuesday it will cut international flying a further 10% beginning in September. United Airlines (hey, who made the sky's friendly, huh? and has the best looking stews in the biz?) is cutting international flying 15% in the first quarter alone. Those two airlines are by far the largest U.S. carriers to Asia.

• In a sign that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (lowest prices, lots of parking and those charming greeters) plans to capitalize on its sales strength in the recession, the retailer is in the process of hiring five public relations firms to better promote its products, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

• Google (whose stock is now really affordable and gives users all kinds of cool, really useful applications for free) will start selling ads targeted to viewers' likely interests, the online ad giant's first step into a controversial type of Web advertising its competitors already offer. Google will use data it collects about what Web sites users visit and what it knows about the content of those sites to sort its massive audience of users into groups such as hockey fans or travel enthusiasts.

• American Express (doesn't tossing that platinum card on the counter shout that you are The Big Dog on any porch?) recently offered some of its customers $300 if they would pay off their balance and close their account. This is a pretty startling change of direction for the lords of plastic. For decades, they've been deluging Americans with come-ons (in 2007, 5.2 billion offers for new cards were sent out), so much so that, as of 2006, there were nearly 1.5 billion charge cards in circulation.

Several long time J-school profs lamented that allowing promotional copy into news stories would give readers a misleading slant on the news. "Besides," said one to OTL, "there is already a place for that...the internet."