Our ‘Beat The Press Party’ Bakeoff (Miss Da Mayah Edition)

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Campaign Outsider

It’s  Week Two of the Great Boston MediaWatch Dogfight, and the hardworking staff is pleased once again to bring you the details.

Start with the Underdog, the Boston Herald’s online Press Party. As always, our feisty local tabloid treats its every move as news. Page 2 news, to be exact:

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Here are the details:

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You can see the segments here, although inexplicably still not on YouTube.

So then, let’s trundle crosstown to the Big Dog, WGBH’s Beat the Press. (Standard disclosure: The hardwatching staff was a longtime contributor to BTP but no more.)

Topics this week:

Tom Menino, Media Mechanic. For a politician who regularly mangles his speech, Boston Mayor Tom Menino has been masterful at managing the media over his 20-year term. How does his cultivation of the press play into his legacy?

Minor Issue? Should news organizations identify minors accused of misdeeds when they haven’t been charged with a crime?

Rants ‘n’ Raves. Our panel highlights some media hits and misses from the week.

You can see it all here (also not on YouTube).

Pick your poison, people.

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Correction o’ the Day (Virgin Records Tattoo Edition)

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Campaign Outsider

From Friday’s New York Times:

An article on Monday about Sophia Amoruso, founder of the online fashion retailer Nasty Gal, using information from a publicist, misstated her age when she got a tattoo of the Virgin Records logo. She was 18, not 16.

Yes, well, glad we cleared that up.

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Google’s Newest Search Results: Sponsored Content

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Campaign Outsider

From our State-of-the-Cuisinart Marketing desk

The Googletron will not be pwned!

From Search Engine Land:

As News Publications Experiment With Sponsored Content, Google Says Keep It Out Of Google News

News publications having “sponsored content “deals are on the rise, and Google’s apparently concerned enough that it’s issued a warning today that publishers should keep such content out of Google News.

In a post today on the Google News blog, the company writes:

If a site mixes news content with affiliate, promotional, advertorial, or marketing materials (for your company or another party), we strongly recommend that you separate non-news content on a different host or directory, block it from being crawled with robots.txt, or create a Google News Sitemap for your news articles only. Otherwise, if we learn of promotional content mixed with news content, we may exclude your entire publication from Google News.

So what’s Google all kerfoogled about? Just this . . .

Read the rest at Sneak Adtack.

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You CAN Judge A Daily By Its Cover

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Campaign Outsider

From our Compare ‘n’ Contrast desk

The front pages of today’s local dailies are perfect representations of where they stand in relation to one another – and their readers.

Boston Globe:

 

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Boston Herald:

 

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That tells you all you need to know about our feisty local tabloid. Long may it rain . . . on all our parades.

Originally posted at It’s Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town.

 

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Paul Grogan Has To Be Pissed At The Boston Herald

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Campaign Outsider

Our feisty local tabloid plays Great Mentioner today in handicapping the potential field for next Boston mayor.

City power players: Our top picks

The race for mayor 2013 — the first without an incumbent in three decades — likely will draw a scrum of hopefuls from City Hall to the State House and beyond. You can’t tell the players without a scorecard. Here’s ours:

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For the cheaters-deprived . . .

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Why New York Is The Big Town

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Campaign Outsider

Ten years ago New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg snuffed out cigarette smoking in the city’s restaurants, bars, and workplaces, an achievement his NYC Coalition for a Smoke-Free City celebrated in this full-page New York Times ad yesterday:

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Ten years? Feh.

Brookline passed a smoking ban almost twenty years ago. Boston effectively banned smoking in bars and restaurants 15 years ago.

But did the city of Boston run a 10-year anniversary ad in the Globe five years ago? Did Brookline run a full-page ad in the Tab ten years ago?

No.

Draw your own conclusions.

UPDATE from our Bloomberg Never Sleeps desk

Also in yesterday’s New York Times:

SMOKING-articleLargeMayor Seeks to Cut Off Cheap Cigarettes

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg opened a new front in his antismoking campaign last week when he proposed new legislation that would require stores to keep tobacco products out of sight, making New York the first city in the nation to do so.

Its companion bill, however, has the potential to be just as groundbreaking, experts on tobacco control said. Along with strengthening the penalties on retailers that evade tobacco taxes, the second bill establishes a minimum price for cigarettes and cigarillos, or little cigars, of $10.50 a pack, the first time such a strategy has been used to combat smoking. The bill also prohibits retailers from redeeming coupons or offering other discounts, like two-for-one deals.

Hell, why not just make them $105 a pack and be done with it.

After all, Bloomberg is (finally) term-limited.

Which means he’s also limit-limited.

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Supreme Difference Between The Local Dailies

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Campaign Outsider

As you would expect, both Boston dailies today report on yesterday’s Supreme Court DOMA hoedown.

Boston Herald:

Donald B. Verrilli Jr., Charles J. Cooper, Theodore Olsen, David Boies,A boost for gay marriage: Justices question US law

WASHINGTON — Concluding two days of intense debate, the Supreme Court signaled Wednesday it could give a boost to same-sex marriage by striking down the federal law that denies legally married gay spouses a wide range of benefits offered to other couples.

As the court wrapped up its remarkable arguments over gay marriage in America, a majority of the justices indicated they will invalidate part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act — if they can get past procedural problems similar to those that appeared to mark Tuesday’s case over California’s ban on same-sex marriage.

Since the federal law was enacted in 1996, nine states and the District of Columbia have made it legal for gays and lesbians to marry. Same-sex unions also were legal in California for nearly five months in 2008 before the Proposition 8 ban.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, often the decisive vote in close cases, joined the four more-liberal justices in raising questions Wednesday about a provision that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman for purposes of federal law.

Boston Globe . . .

Read the rest at It’s Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town.

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Tom MeniNO: First Take In Local Dailies

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Campaign Outsider

So Boston Mayor Tom Menino will not run for a sixth term.

So the hardbetting staff owes $50 to wagerful reader Michael Pahre’s favorite charity.

So what.

The important thing is: What happens now.

Boston Globe website at 2 am:

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Boston Herald website at 2 am . . .

Read the rest at It’s Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town.

 

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New Boston Religious Sect: Get Your Tail In Church This Easter

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Campaign Outsider

From our Traffic Jam desk

Heading out Route 9 this week, the hardlydriving staff had plenty of time to observe the series of signs planted on the median. They all featured this image:

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The sponsor: StoryHeights Church, which describes itself this way:

Our Beliefs

Hi.  If you’re curious how we would technically describe ourselves, we’re StoryHeights Church and we are a Christian, full-Gospel, spirit-filled, non-denominational church. But when you get to know us, you’ll see we are normal people who love Jesus with all of our hearts and try to love people as much as He does.  We teach the simple truth of the Bible, worship God in a passionate way, and give Him our first and best in all areas of our lives.  We believe God designed the local church to be the hope of the World today as we can provide hope and healing for people looking for answers.

Our Affiliation

StoryHeights Church is part of the Association of Related Churches (ARC). Founded in 2000, by a handful of pastors who joined together to form ARC as an association of relational churches, a non-denomination organization, working with church planters, church leaders, and churches in transition to provide support, guidance and resources to launch and grow life-giving churches. In the last 10 years, ARC has planted over 350 churches nationally as well as internationally. For more information about ARC, please visit Association of Related Churches.

So. Your tail goes . . . where?

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Herald Provides Globe Graphic

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Campaign Outsider

We have a rare tag-team effort today by the local dailies, starting with the lead piece in the Boston Globe:

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Helpful Globe graphic:

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Even more helpful Boston Herald graphic:

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Hey – someone hand me that gold watch there, wouldja?

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