New revenue stream - angry parents

Tennis mom calls today. She's pissed because we just did a roundup of state championship tennis and her Precious Flower's name wasn't in the headline.

The kid is from a small private school. We led the roundup with info about a kid from a much bigger public school winning state. Yes, tennis mom used the "she works just as hard as the big school kids" line.

Anyway, she tells me that her husband owns a local company and is going to buy an ad specifically to say what a lousy job we do in sports. She says I can prevent this by doing a followup story on just her daughter, who deserves more coverage than two paragraphs. I offer to transfer her to advertising because I won't be intimidated into doing a story.

That was two hours ago.

Ad manager just called. Tennis dad has spent $500 for an ad. Cha-ching!

 

Newspapers have to be on the lookout for new sources of revenue now that 'teh interwebs' rules all.. so basically, sports departments need to ignore the rich kid schools so people can put in ads pissed off at the coverage. Problem solved!

 

i would hope the ad is congratulatory to the kid instead of saying what a lousy job you do in sports coverage. i can't see any newspaper, no matter how much of a rag it is, would allow that at any cost.

 

Tell the ad manager that you want the commission.

 

I did. He mumbled something about buying me a coke from the downstairs vending machine.

 

Do they not realize that paying $500 bucks for an ad to gripe about the paper makes them look like jackasses?

 

Typical.

 

They're tennis parents. I think you know the answer to this already.

 

It was a rhetorical question.

 

Whores would have been the word I would have chosen.

 

The ad department should refuse the ad.

 

This whole thing is such sweet irony. Dude thinks the newspaper sucks, so he pays it $500 to get that message out. a

Next time, if you really want to make a point, try a billboard or a TV ad, dumbass.