Journalists @ Viscion Media Group to sing for their supper
There was a recent debate in the blog-o-sphere about differentiating blog posts from editorials and advertorials. However, that is minute to what Singapore’s Viscion Media Group is introducing to the traditional media space.
Welcome the sales journalist!
Wrote Jamie Lee for Journalism.sg,
The sacred wall between journalism and sales has been torn down by the newest media company on the block, much to the dismay of media practitioners who fear that editorial content will increasingly pander towards advertisers’ needs.
Viscion Media Group – a firm set up about one and a half years ago that publishes magazines such as Lexean and Playeur – has merged these two roles into a new job position known as the sales journalist.
Sales journalists from all its five publications will be tasked to meet advertising clients and design a marketing plan, which could include advertisements, editorial, advertorial, events and product placements, said general manager Holman Chin, who spoke to journalism students from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information (WKWSCI) at a talk in February.
Mr Chin also highlighted that every $10,000 spend with Viscion, they will guarantee $30,000 worth of coverage. In doing so, “sales journalists would write the pitch so there’s more knowledge of how the editorial would look and hence more trust”.
Trust an editorial page that is disguised as an advertorial?
If a vendor is paying $10,000 in advertising with this sales journalist, wouldn’t the vendor want control over the editorial?
Why should the reader trust that editorial?
Mr Chin also argued that the editor at Viscion’s magazine will have final say over the content that the sales journalists produce as the editorial operates independently of the sales journalists.
So let’s say the advertiser is willing to spend $10,000 with the sales journalist to print an article, is the editor going to dish the story into the bin because it is a bias story?
That’s $10,000 down the drain. The editor has to be aware that the $10,000 will contribute to his next salary, would the editor dare to say no?
Maybe $10,000 isn’t a big figure. How about a $1 million dollar campaign? Would Mr Chin allow the editor to write a review about the product to tell the readers that the product is not up to scratch?
Why should the sales journalist be the only one benefit from the sales? Why not the editor? The editor is the one that decides if the story goes to print or otherwise.
Sumana Rajarethnam, editor of Playeur, supported Mr Chin to say “Of course there is a risk that journalistic integrity will be compromised, but the risk is no higher than with a journalist being sent on an all-expenses paid trip who is asked to write about it. Is there full integrity there?”
If Viscion is so worried that the all-expenses paid trip will affect the integrity of the article, why don’t Viscion offer to pay for the junket instead? Wouldn’t that remove any questions about integrity?
This blogger is aware of a broadcaster who has a strict rule that if one their broadcast team is send abroad for a junket which is deemed very very important, the broadcaster will pay for the whole trip instead.
Is this the reason why Dylan Tan left Playeur Journals only after two issues?
The light side is getting darker.
Viscion Media Group publishes magazines such as Lexean and Playeur Journal.
