Sunday 3 June 2007

It all "ads" up

The 72-page Saturday Sun news section felt a little light yesterday after laying down $1.06 in a corner store beyond the GTA borders.

Soon discovered the news content was even lighter, with an irritating amount of precious news space being used to promote Quebecor' new national online classifieds.

We counted one full page ad for classifiedextra.ca, one quarter page ad, plus 11 banner ads at the bottom of pages throughout the paper measuring 10 inches wide by 1 1/4 inches deep.

Add those 13 space-consuming ads to the numerous Canoe.ca and torontosun.com/video promotional plugs and you have Saturday Sun readers feeling like are being spammed.

(Sunday Sun update: More of the same, with three, count 'em, three full pages devoted to promoting that online classifieds site, plus the banner ads scattered throughout the paper.)

Tipsters say it was much of the same in other Sun Media newspapers. One told TSF: "Sun Media is blowing editorial independence out the window. Papers are being forced to run editorial copy about the launch of the new Quebecor Media Inc. online classified service (in addition to the full page ads and banner ads.)."

From Day One, Sun readers have been known to scan the paper from front to back. One or two ads for the web site are tolerable, but 13? Insulting.

The folks at Quebecor obviously believe they have to hard sell their Internet properties, but continue to the overkill and, like e-mail spam, some readers will simply delete the Sun.

Enough with the hammer - and using limited Sun news space for shameless self promotion.

It might give some people the impression Quebecor has little interest in providing adequate editorial content in its newspapers.

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