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The newspaper industry’s version of an infomercial.
Does your local newspaper sell its journalistic credibility down the river with an annual “best of” contest asking readers to vote for their favorite companies the newspaper later uses to shamelessly pursue advertising deals for a “special supplement” announcing the results?
The Topeka Capital-Journal sure does, and they’ve transformed the seedy affair into an art form, complete with softball interviews for some of the winning companies.
Take AT&T, which somehow got voted Topeka’s best cell phone company. (Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and TracFone also made their “list” — showing either the tiny number of cell phone competitors in Topeka or a desire not to leave anyone out.)
In a “special” to the Capital-Journal, ad sales guy “reporter” Phil Wilke managed to interview an AT&T spokesman… by e-mail. It was not a tough interview:
How do you feel about winning Best of Topeka and to what do you attribute your win?
AT&T is extremely proud of the long-standing relationships we have established with our customers in Topeka. We’ve had the opportunity to develop lifelong relationships with many of our customers, and we remain committed to delivering to them an extraordinary customer experience.
In a highly competitive market, what makes AT&T stand out?
We have a great combination of industry-leading wireless and wired networks, a robust portfolio of cutting-edge devices, and an intense focus on fulfilling what we call “our Promise.” AT&T’s goal is to be America’s premier retailer. To do that, we strive to serve customers in a smart, friendly and fast fashion that offers personalized solutions for each customer’s needs.
The cellphone business is changing rapidly. What is on the horizon for the coming year?
We continue to invest in our networks in the Topeka area to improve the customer experience. We are constantly upgrading our retail offerings with the latest devices and accessories to take full advantage of our networks. And in the future, you will be seeing even more integration between your smartphone, tablet and all your home services with new applications and cloud-based services.
Pulitzer Prize material it is not.
Consumer Reports readers do not think as highly of AT&T, but then that magazine does not accept advertising from AT&T — Topeka’s newspaper does. (J.D. Power and Associates also put AT&T at the bottom in its own survey.)
I first got suspicious when Olive Garden, the Chef Boyardee of Italian restaurants, made the list for “best restaurant service,” “best Italian restaurant,” and [shudder] “most romantic restaurant.” There is either something very wrong in Topeka, or these results don’t mean a thing.
But they do mean a lot of advertising revenue for the Capital Journal, which can call every winner and implore them to take out a special ad “thanking readers” for placing trust in their establishment. Puff pieces like the AT&T interview found above do little for the newspaper’s credibility and trust with readers, however.
Surprisingly there was no category for Topeka’s best news source, but we did finally locate one where a nomination for the Topeka newspaper was appropriate: “BEST PLACE TO PLAY SOFTBALL.”
