• by John Gaffney , October 13, 2002

If You Gotta Ask You’ll Never Know: Is great journalism compatible with business? Hell, yes. The questions comes from an Editor and Publisher story last Friday concerning a discussion among 24 media executives and journalists who convened for three days in June at the sixth annual Aspen Institute Conference on Journalism and Society. Great journalism takes many forms. It could be Judith Miller in The New York Times writing on germ warfare. It could be Greil Marcus squeezing the last blood out of rock’n roll music on Salon. It could be Frank Deford cutting the NFL down to size in SI. It could be Howard Kurtz trashing the whole lot of us on The Washington Post. Great journalism is accessible, accurate information presented with attitude. It’s creativity honed with discipline. The great thing about journalism is that on any day, anyone just might write a story that changes people’s lives for the better. Now, as a planner/buyer, should you care about journalism? I say it should be right up there with audience measurements. The best magazines and TV/Cable networks have an IQ and a JQ - journalism quotient. Charlie Rose would have a high JQ. Entertainment Tonight wouldn’t hit double digits. Good journalism is the glue that holds this whole media mess together.

Martha’s Back: In ads, that is. I don’t agree with the criticism I’ve seen recently about Kmart re-enlisting Stewart for a new ad campaign. Kmart has no stronger card to play. And neither does Martha. You go to work in this business; you don’t stand around. Kmart and Martha are going back to work.

Sirius Trouble: The satellite radio company that doesn’t take ads, is in money trouble. I think the car companies that took a risk on stocking their products in new cars, will bail them out for the short term. And then there will be two satellite companies who accept ads.