Earlier today the hardreading staff noted that this ad had appeared in yesterday’s Boston Globe.
We emailed to Stat Cats to ask whether Sunday Stat would be a one-off or published regularly. And here’s what the redoubtable Rick Berke replied:
Hi there.
Got your message.
Depending on interest from readers and advertisers, we’re hoping Sunday STAT will become more than a one-shot offering. Already, we’re hearing from advertisers who are interested in another edition this summer. And we’ve been in discussions with some newspapers around the country who are thinking about STAT as a print supplement.
Let me know if you have other questions.
Best,
Rick
The hardreading staff meant to point this out yesterday, but we got sidetracked by . . . we forget. Anyway, we’re here now to note this ad that ran in yesterday’s Boston Globe.
So what we seem to have here is either a) a one-off Sunday insert, or b) a pilot for a regularly published print spinoff of Stat News.
It looks to us like the latter, but then what do we know. So we’ve sent this email to the Statniks asking what’s what.
Dear Stat Cats,
We write the blog It’s Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town (https://itsgoodtoliveinatwodailytown.com) and we noticed your ad in yesterday’s Boston Globe about the upcoming Sunday Stat insert.
Just wondering: Will that be a one-time publication or can we look forward to its being a regular feature?
Be of good cheer, splendid readers! Today not only marks the return of the swan boats to the Boston Public Garden, but it’s also #OneBostonDay, as Mistah Mayah declares in this full-page Boston Globe ad.
There is, however, no One Boston Day ad in today’s Boston Herald.
The hardreading staff isn’t wired enough to be at the New! Improved! Fenway Park this afternoon for the Red Sox home opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates (huh?), but we did take the time to check out the Boston dailies for all the hopeful/gleeful advertisements that normally accompany the start of a new season.
And there were . . . none.
Nothing in the Boston Globe, nothing (big surprise) in the Boston Herald.
Even odder, the Globe’s 18-page Baseball 2017 preview yesterday had no pom-pom ads, just this:
As the hardreading staff noted the other day, the Boston Globe has officially joined the Trumped-up Pep Squad for Truth recently launched by the Washington Post via its new banner headline.
The Globe pom-poms have been running at the top of the paper’s website. Representative samples:
Today the real journalists at the Globe took their campaign to the print edition with this ad at the bottom of A10.
Next stop: T-shirts. Hey, if it’s good enough for WaPo, it should be good enough for the Globe.
No question Planned Parenthood is right in the middle of the public debate at this point. As this Axios piece notes, the organization could be Donald Trump’s next emergency.
The fight to defund Planned Parenthood could shut down the government in less than a month. It’s getting hardly any media attention but it’s the most immediate emergency confronting the Trump administration, which is reeling after its Obamacare fiasco.
Fair enough, but we still don’t get why PPLM would spend money on an ad that reaches an overwhelmingly male audience.
So we’ll give them a call and, as always, keep you posted.
It all started with Donald Trump’s Dark Knight, Steve Bannon, labeling the news media the opposition party.
Next thing you know, the Washington Post pasted this tagline under its banner.
Not surprisingly, the Post also rolled out DDiD merchandise, which was – not surprisingly – roundly mocked. Exhibit A: The Weekly Standard’s Trumpopleptic Tees piece.
Even WaPo’s arch-rival, New York Times editor Dean Baquet, took a shot at the Post’s darkness mongering.
“I love our competition with The Washington Post. I think it’s great. But I think their slogan — Marty Baron please forgive me for saying this — sounds like the next Batman movie.”
Regardless, Marty Baron’s old newspaper, the Boston Globe, has now joined the banner wavers.
While cruising the Globe’s website yesterday, the hardreading staff encountered these headers.
You get the idea.
Whether prospective subscribers get it is another question entirely.
Exhibit Umpteen: Today’s Business section story by Jon Chesto about Boston Signage Syndrome.
On Boston’s skyline, signs can be a tricky business
Jeff Immelt wanted a headquarters sign that could be seen from Mars.
Or at least that’s what the General Electric CEO jokingly told a crowd of local business leaders when he came to Boston a year ago to celebrate the company’s decision to relocate here.
Good luck with that, Jeff. The Boston Planning & Development Agency is reviewing the company’s new sign as part of broader construction plans for its future Fort Point office, and the rooftop logo will have more earthly dimensions, maybe 35 feet in diameter.
Still, the approval of a tower sign in Boston remains a rare gift, one bestowed upon a select few.
Among them – yes – the Globe’s own gas light.
The Citgo sign in Kenmore Square probably would never get approved today, and yet it has become a beloved landmark, one that Walsh helped save this week by refereeing lease negotiations.
Still, no disclosure.
Hey, Boston media watchers – don’t any of you want a piece of this?
During the past year the hardreading staff has painstakingly noted what must be hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Citgo ads like this one that have run in the Boston Globe.
And yet . . .
Never once in its coverage has the $tately local broadsheet mentioned the paper’s financial interest in the survival of the Kenmore Square icon.
The Citgo sign will remain atop its longtime home in Kenmore Square after the petroleum company reached a deal with its new landlord Wednesday, ending a months-long standoff that had threatened one of the most recognized landmarks of the Boston skyline.
The fate of the rooftop sign had been in question since last year, when the building that hosts it was sold by Boston University to Related Beal, a New York-based development company.
(To be fair graf goes here)
To be fair, the piece by Adam Vaccaro and Tim Logan does include a sort of drive-by disclosure:
The controversy emerged last fall soon after Related Beal bought a total of nine buildings in Kenmore Square from BU for $134 million. Believing its old lease terms of $250,000 to be far below current market rates, the new landlord had wanted Citgo to pay as much as 10 times that amount.
Citgo had previously countered with an offer to pay $500,000, and had launched a public campaign to rally support behind the sign.
Pretty limp, Globeniks. And pretty sad you’re not willing to do the right thing and disclose your financial interest in this story.
But maybe that’s consistent with what editor Brian McGrory said about another recent adberation, which he labeled “part of a larger campaign that is important to the ad client and significant to the Globe.”
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It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 