WCPO, the Scripps ABC affiliate in Cincinnati, is running an ad campaign extolling consumers to drop the city’s daily newspaper, Gannett’s Enquirer, in favor of WCPO Insider, a paid membership website. “We’re not trying to destroy them. We do want to compete with them,” said Dave Peterson, WCPO’s digital general manager. “People have said it’s […]
WCPO, the Scripps ABC affiliate in Cincinnati, is running an ad campaign extolling consumers to drop the city’s daily newspaper, Gannett’s Enquirer, in favor of WCPO Insider, a paid membership website.
“We’re not trying to destroy them. We do want to compete with them,” said Dave Peterson, WCPO’s digital general manager. “People have said it’s a strike against journalism. It’s friendly fire.”
While the campaign is generating controversy, the idea of pitting TV news against the newspapers, or newspapers against TV news, is not new.
In 1986, the San Francisco Examiner produced an advertising campaign with a similar bent, attacking local TV news as lightweight compared to the heavier merits of the newspaper.
At the time, Wayne Freedman was a feature reporter for then-NBC affiliate KRON San Francisco.
He writes that his news director, Mike Ferring, told him to do a story about the campaign and added, “don’t hold back.”
He didn’t.
(NOTE: Freedman is the author of the book, It Tales More Than Good Looks To Succeed at Television News Reporting. Click here to link to stories from it. And here’s one of the stories from the book.
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