Sep 9, 2009

How About the O's Front Page "Ad-Wrap"

What do you think of the Oregonian newspaper's front page ad wraps? I tear 'em off. Annoying does not quite describe how I feel about the ad wraps. But they are still far less annoying than their left wing news and editorial slant. Much far less annoying than their "How We Live" section and its condescending carbon dioxide is evil/peak oil/ global warming activists are better than the rest of us non-Gore admirers point of view.

Don't take it out on me and deliver this "How We Live" garbage to my home just because you feel guilty about not recycling your baby's buffalo chip diapers one more time. That's how YOU live, not me. I recycle because it makes for a tiny garbage bill, not because I'm trying to make a political statement and impress my local cadre leader.

And that, in a nutshell, is why the Oregonian is failing. They're trying to get the PDX enviro crowd to buy their product when those readers are all on Oregon Live, Facebook, Twitter, Daily Kos, Keith Olbermann etc and may never have or ever will hold a print newspaper in their hands. That's not your demographic, O! I am your demographic. I've subscribed for years. I read your rag because reading the newspaper every day is in my blood. I guess the O hasn't heard that it takes ten times more money to attract a new customer than keep an existing customer.

I actually PAY to have your paper delivered daily to my door (and sometimes under my car, which is annoying as hell at 5am and it's raining.) I sometimes even look at the ads in your paper. Your adwrap doesn't impress me. It makes me want to call that advertiser and tell them I will never ever shop at their store because the adwrap is a pain in the early morning riser.

But I've just about had enough of you, O. Your lack of objectivity (big cheer story today in the O about 200 or so single payer plan fans at Pioneer Courthouse Square, but only condescending sniping disguised as a news story by Jeff Mapes earlier this week about the 1000+ who attended the Tea Party Tax Fairness rally on Monday- why not make both stories more objective instead?), your constant cheerleading for Metro's new urbanism, your abandonment of east county news coverage, your higher prices, and your marketing ad wrap gimmick, maybe it's time for this newspaper junkie to go cold turkey and kick a bad O habit.

Is there a Schick Center for old paperboys?

1 comment:

eddie said...

I'm still not sure why newspapers don't understand their own readership. I suppose it's a flaw in the free market theory of economics that sometimes an entire industry will be run by folks who just happen to rate success a distant second to politics.

There's no way they can directly compete with the free "Arts and Entertainment" weeklies, which are the preferred papers of their apparent target audience. If they continue on their current path, they'll be gone be the end of the decade.