Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Did Globe offer any explanation about Parade article?


I would guess many Joplin Globe readers were as surprised as I was when they saw the cover of Parade magazine in the Sunday edition.
The cover featured a large photo of assassinated Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto, describing her as "the best hope for the United States," and saying, "I am what the terrorists fear most." This, of course, reached the public two weeks after Ms. Bhutto was assassinated.

Obviously, Parade magazine has to be printed early and mailed to the hundreds of newspapers that use it, but if there was an any explanation of that sort in the Globe, I missed it. (And please, let me know if there was such an explanation.)

The Benazir Bhutto cover and horribly outdated story has been the source of criticism at many newspapers, as noted in a column by Timothy McNulty, public editor of the Chicago Tribune:

Let me step back and give this criticism some context: Parade is an independent publication that pays the Tribune to distribute the magazine. None of its content is chosen, reported or edited by journalists at the Tribune. At the same time, the newspaper gets lots of feedback every day, and this one hits a nerve because the editors understood how problematic it was going to be to run such an article.

What makes this special is that it deals with the core issue of credibility. The problem, then, is not merely about the number of complaints. Readers expect the paper to be timely and clear about the news articles it presents.

Reader Marilyn Marwedel summed up the concern with this warning: "Now, I will always wonder how fresh and accurate are your news articles and stories."

Readers are not concerned about the business relationships the newspaper has with advertisers or with those who compile television or stock listings. Readers hold the newspaper accountable for everything that appears under its name. Whether the Chicago Tribune label should continue to appear on Parade magazine is now under discussion.

Tribune Publisher Scott Smith said the decision was to allow Parade to exercise its own editorial judgment. "We did it at the request of the Parade publisher, who concluded that the issue would still be of interest to its readers."

Parade's publisher and president, Randy Siegel, said it would have cost several millions of dollars to update the article, even to put a Post-It type note on the magazine. He also said creating a delay in sending out Parade may have resulted in newspapers not receiving copies in time to insert the magazines into their Sunday editions.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

First, most Globe readers and all local TV viewers have no interest regarding happenings outside the "4 State" unless it involves Brittany Spears, NFL football, or Donald Trump. Secondly, perhaps the Tribune readers expect " fresh and accurate ...news articles and stories" but that ship sailed for the Globe long ago.

Randy said...

Apparently, the Globe did not anticipate any negative reaction to this article (or did not notice it). A reader told me an article ran the next day in the Globe on page 5A, apparently after some complaints.

Anonymous said...

I, too, wondered what in the world when I saw the Bhutto cover. Initially, I thought it was a tribute piece until I saw the headlines.
Parade does try to occasionally be topical, something some of the other Sunday supplement mags could try. Sometimes it works. But with a print schedule several weeks ahead of a publication schedule, it sometimes bites you in the butt.