Joplin Globe promotion does little to help newspaper

The 2008 award for highway robbery should go to the advertising agency which came up with the campaign the Joplin Globe has been using for the past few months. (Actually, it is hard to believe that anyone other than the out-of-date Globe leadership could have created the ad.)

Using background music that was outdated three decades ago, the Globe, the stodgy old codger of area journalism, does nothing to shed its image. The advertisement, which has no spoken words, features dramatic music and still photos (yes, I said still photos) of Globe Editor Carol Stark and reporters Susan Redden and Wally Kennedy, noting that all three have been with the newspaper for more than 30 years.

While those three certainly contribute to the Globe, this business of emphasizing them over and over, instead of using up-to-date advertising techniques to promote other reporters and editors, is definitely not encouraging anyone to pick up the Globe.

Of course, I am sure this campaign came from the same people who came up with the idea to tell Globe readers there was not enough room in the Joplin newspaper for Joplin news, thus necessitating a free weekly newspaper that no one wants or needs.