25/11/2007

When ads cause discomfort

By Mário Magalhães
ombudsman@uol.com.br

A reader telephoned to say that last Sunday he gave up on reading a story selected for its headline because "I got tired of looking for it among all the ads." I was also bothered. I searched through stories on pages A4, A8 and A13. Among them was an excess of advertising.

"It is difficult to find Folha's articles in this salad of buildings and condominiums," one reader confessed. Another provoked, "Is Folha a newspaper with some ads or an advertiser with some news?"

Messages from readers piled up after the Nov. 10 edition, with 200 pages, a record for Folha on a Saturday. Many of them summed up the ads in the 16 sections: there were 82 full-page ads. Advertising took up more than half of the space. By itself, the advertising boom is reason to celebrate. It expresses a dislocation from the United States. The "New York Times" reported that big American newspapers now sell 10% fewer copies than in 2000.

The same period showed a decline at Folha, when the biggest-circulation daily was down 30% in September (from 441,000 to 307,000 per day).

The trend is worldwide: prestigious general newspapers lose readers in their print versions and gain them on the Internet.

When advertising is included, there is a contrast. The New York Times Media Group's printed newspapers earned 5.4% less during the second quarter of 2007 than in the previous year.

In Brazil, the Inter-Media Project maintained that the jump by newspapers in the third quarter of 2006 to this year was 26%. I sought confirmation, and the newsroom did not respond. Here is current information about the company: revenues at Folha in October were the best-ever for a single month.

The managing editor did not even divulge the growth in revenues from advertising. She only asserted that "commercial revenues this year are higher than expected."

I sought public information in the newspaper "Media & Message" from Aug. 27: Folha's executive director of business, Antonio Carlos de Moura, said that through July the jump was 8% (at the printed newspaper; Folha Online was 20%, but its share of the pie is still not significant).

Advertising constitutes the majority of revenues, according to the stylebook, which said "ads are part of the total package of information that readers seek every day in the newspaper."

I agree: those who want to buy an apartment leaf through the newspaper. The strength of the real estate market is mainly responsible for the heated growth, followed by the sale of automobiles, as part of the economic expansion.
It is not advertising, but rather journalism, that holds essential interest to readers. To honor this gift, advertising should generate journalistic benefits, and up to now this has not occurred. Not only because reading on weekends is similar to running an obstacle course, but because incoming resources are not converted into more investments, considering what is read.

There is no progress noted on beats, in stories or in editing. It seems to weaken journalistic ambition.

The newsroom assures that "the growth of advertising revenues allows the company to obtain a better result and continue investing in quality journalism."

Therefore I suggest: Folha could reinstall correspondents around the country (starting with Belém) and overseas (such as Beijing) and refuse so many free trips at the "invitation" of those who seek favorable coverage. It could hold advertising to good sense limitations on news pages - part of it grouped into specific sections.

Advertising is welcome. But it should provide for a better newspaper and not represent an impediment to readers.

Folha errs and refuses to correct it

Folha came out with some valuable information last Sunday: companies ABC Industrial and National Electronics Distributors donated 500,000 reals (about US $275,000) to the governing Workers Party (PT).

They are tied to Cisco, a global giant in the market of computer networks which apparently under declared the value of its imports to Brazil.

Federal police who investigated the fraud said, without their names being revealed, that the two companies are not able to come up with such a big donation. They said the payment was given in exchange for favoritism to another company close to Cisco, Damovo, in an electronic auction by the government-owned savings bank, Caixa Econômica Federal.

The newspaper discovered that receipts of the donations were found; the PT confirmed them, saying they are legal.

The information has public interest. The headline read "Cisco uses trick to donate 500,000 reals to PT, police assert." As proved in a later statement by the Federal Police, the institution did not assert anything. "Off the record" information was treated by Folha as official statements. It is a mistake that the newspaper has not retracted.

On Monday, the story "Caixa changed tender in competition that it says has not changed" concluded: "In the settlement, technical characteristics about the equipment were removed from the tender --and it was thanks to this technical proposal, and not the lower price, that Damovo won the auction."

Furthermore: "In exchange (for the donation to the PT) Caixa changed the tender because Damovo, a Cisco distributor, won an auction." Caixa responded that the change occurred in the auction that Damovo lost, not the one it won. The newspaper had no way to contest this; nevertheless, it did not correct it. Worse than making the error, it has refused to correct it. In the underworld of favoritism to parties, I don't doubt anything. But journalism should be faithful to the facts. And the facts contradict Folha.

-Translation by John Wright