There is a theoretical wall that separates advertising from editorial content in the world of journalism, but sometimes the barricade gets breached. The president of a
Michigan company recently broadcast the following "form letter" via email to all the publications in which it advertises:
Effective immediately all current ad contracts are canceled. Satellite Export & Engineering, Inc. has repeatedly supplied your magazine with our up-to-date press
releases over the past 7 months, and to date, not one has gone to print. We have spent large sums of money advertising in your publication, and it is an outrage that we have not
been better taken care of. Once your magazine begins publishing our press releases, Satellite Export & Engineering, Inc. will consider resuming the ad contract. Whether or not
our press releases are printed will be a huge factor in deciding whether or not we will be renewing our contract for the next calendar year.
The writer, Jeff Mathie, told PR NEWS that he recognizes the difference between buying advertising and being editorially newsworthy, but that he thinks that an
advertiser who runs ads every month should get some editorial consideration.
Although this isn't a PR tactic we recommend, the heated message may have worked. Mathie said he has received several positive responses from editors at the publications who
received his blast. "I had at least five to six who have said, 'Yes, we'll have something about you in August,'" Mathie said.
Rob Fernandez, senior editor of Via Satellite, one of the pubs Mathie complained to (and a sister publication of PR NEWS), said an article including Satellite
Export & Engineering had already been planned for August before the angry email showed up. Fernandez acknowledged there is "a more blurry line between church and state" in
keeping advertising and editorial practices separate. "We are advocates of the industry, so we can't be as impartial. But purely from the practical standpoint we can't give in or
appear to give in," Fernandez said. "We do try to look at the problem, see if there was a lack of outreach on our part."