One of my pet peeves is when people want to put an "ad" in the paper. Some of the time, they have something newsworthy and there is an awkward moment where a church group or the retired principal who just voted the greatest educator in the history of the world grabs a checkbook and asks how much we're charging. Then they seem surprised/embarrassed/offended when don't have to pay. I'm assuming it's how the general populace think we work because the vast media conspiracy gets paid to run articles. Our payoffs are so great, it's surprising that newspaper parking lots are often mistaken for "buy here pay here" used car lots.
Then there are the people who say they want to place and "ad" and, after talking to them for 10 seconds, you realize they actually want to place an ad and aren't pitching a story/press release on the community page. Then get angry when you try to get them to pay for it.
Our contributing editor answered a phone call about a pageant.
"It sounded like it was over and one with and we'd get a press release and a photo of the winner and runners up," the editor said. "They also mentioned something about the money collected going to charity."
The editor announced that the release was coming down the pike and there was a groan and a mention that the "release" went to File 13 the year before. Before a question could be asked about that, a Death-Star-sized e-mail apparently appeared in the inbox.
"The event hadn't happened yet," the editor said. "The 'release' when into detail about pricing for the event and included photos of all of the contestants. All of them. Well over 25.
The woman called a few seconds later. She asked if the e-mail arrived, the contributor said. She wanted confirmation that all of the photos were running.
"I panicked for a second," The editor said. "Think of the size of a newspaper and the size of a standard mugshot. Along with the press release, that was half a page easily. I told her no and there was a pause before she exploded. 'It's all or nothing!' was one of the things she ranted before I just told her we'd see what we can do."
So far, they have just ran a modified release. No word yet if she went ballistic. that might explain why I haven't heard back yet.
I just find this ridiculous. Even if this were a non profit event, no one has room for that unless they're well on the road of going out of print. An all or nothing? Wow, your 50 cents a day (if you read the paper) gives you the authority to give an ultimatum. My other question is why. Why is it necessary to run photos of pageant contestants BEFORE the pageant? Is the audience voting. Are you trying to entice an audience beforehand? I don't see how this benefits ... oh, wait ... I do. And that's a bit creepy.
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