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Do Ads In Newspapers Influence Their Editorial Contents? Of Course They Do

September 24, 2009

Do Ads In Newspapers Influence Their Contents? Of Course They Do

Have you ever wondered whether advertising influences newspaper reporting? Would newspapers, for example, really go after, say, big banks and big retailers that regularly place ads on their pages? Because, as you probably know, newspapers make most of their profits from advertising and the cover price does not even pay for the paper they are printed on.

Let me tell you about a little experiment I have conducted recently. I bought three leading British national newspapers recently and counted the number of ads, placed in them by banks, mortgage lenders, credit card companies and other financial institutions. You will never guess how many ads I found on their pages. One quality tabloid, for example, carried twenty-nine, yes, twenty-nine substantial adverts of banks and lending companies on its pages. Another newspaper carried twenty ads of a similar nature, and another one had twelve adverts, but boasted a two page spread taken out by a big bank, so it could safely be assumed that in money terms these twelve ads brought in roughly the same revenue as the twenty-nine ones that were carried in another paper.

So what should we conclude from that? Well, there is a crisis raging in the economy which is caused by irresponsible lending practices of banks and building societies and yet, we do not really see any real backlash in the press against the money men. Now why do you think that would be? Can it by any chance be somehow connected to advertising? Because it would be very silly of newspapers that depend to such an extent on advertising by the financial sector to really have a go at banks and mortgage lenders and risk losing all that money. I simply cannot imagine the press launching a massive attack on the greedy money men and demanding that they are taken to the cleaners when these very same money men provide so much advertisng revenue to the newspapers. It just would not make sense, would it? As they say, you do not bite the hand that feeds you.

This is rather sad, you know, because it is exactly the time for the British press to show some real backbone and hit the banks really hard; if only to compensate for its inability to bring down Tony Blair and his cronies for starting an illegal war against Iraq. This time a different kind of war is being waged. It is the banks now that are attacking everyone and trying to recoup their losses by putting a squeeze on customers and demanding more and more injections of taxpayers’ money.

And how about credit card companies, these loan sharks that charge outrageous rates of interest and harass people who fall back on their payments? Believe me, times are approaching when these boys will go after everyone on a massive scale. About a year ago I found myself in a situation when a credit card company terrorised my family with persistent phone calls for several days while I was away on a trip. Due to a misunderstanding I missed one payment – the first in about 5 years! – but this was deemed enough for these thugs to unleash a campaign of harassment against my family.

Take my advice: if you owe money to credit card companies and you still have equity left in your house, sell and pay them off. They will rip you apart and cause you a lot of grief if you start defaulting on your payments. They are gangsters and thugs.they have nothing to do with banking or lending.

Now, how often do you see ads for credit cards in newspapers? Very often, right? So how can you expect newspapers to hit credit card companies hard for their despicable behaviour? They simply cannot afford to do that. Newspapers do occasionally write about some individual cases, when credit card companies overcharge clients, but have you ever seen any articles that would reveal the real scale of the problem and demand that the government takes drastic measures against these loan sharks?

Did you know that some credit card companies charge up to 35 per cent and even more in annual interest on cash withdrawals? I have checked with my local hoods, who are into loan sharking, and you can get a better deal from them than with credit card companies. But have you read about it in the papers? I do not think so. There are too much advertising revenues at stake, you see. Instead of demanding that the government puts a cap on interest rates of credit card companies the newspapers are involved in highlighting individual cases and not bothering to fight the system itself.

Did someone just mention supermarket chains? No? Well, they also advertise a lot in newspapers, often taking full pages and double spreads. Again, we are talking serious money here. So have the newspapers been tough on the supermarkets wiping out small family run shops? Of course they have not. They publish an occasional report about it but there is no sign of a coordinated effort to protect small shop owners from the ruthless onslaught of the supermarket giants.

Retail trade generally – a big source of advertising revenues for the newspapers – is treated with great sympathy, I would even say adoration, by the newspapers whereas they should be vigorously criticising retailers for overpricing, for selling low quality merchandise, for using underpaid labour, for not training staff properly and for blatantly misleading customers. But once again, the newspapers are in no position to attack the retail big boys for fear of upsetting them; too much advertising revenues are at stake.

And that is how things stand at the moment. Advertising has become a powerful weapon in keeping the newspapers on a leash by big business. I probably sound like a communist but that is how it is.

– End –

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