Could somebody tell me why Reader's Digest versions of Tiki Barber's and Sheryl Crow's life stories are supposed to make me want to buy the Wall Street Journal, or even simply read it? Has anyone else seen these ads -- "Every Journey Needs a Journal" -- ? "Start your journey. Subscribe now" ? This is a major disgrace for a major financial daily, utterly repudiative of any mature interest in the Journal, and it suggests that the heretofore reasonably well-managed ongoing effort to candy up the Journal has finally penetrated the editorial policy, where it will burrow, like the smiley-faced tapeworm that it is, ingest its host from the inside (ironically, in its intestine), kill, and finally replace it. Just as gross as it sounds.
The idea that "life is a journey" is being systematically drained of every ounce of awe and trepidation that the recognition of this prospect used to have -- back when, for instance, life was conceived as a pilgrimage. Doubt has, like everything else, been domesticated, made glib, bought off in the back seat with a Happy Meal. When, at the site linked above, I am prompted to "Select a Journey" from a palette made up of Tiki Barber, Jake Burton, Kenneth Cole, Sheryl Crow, Oscar De La Hoya, Steven Levitt, David Neeleman, Paul Teutul, Jr., and Alice Walters, the fear and loathing that results is a poor substitute for fear and trembling. For the Wall Street Journal to turn so gratuitously to the capitalist theory of Rascal Flatts makes me want to prophesy that doubt is the killer that won't stay dead -- soon to bust loose from the very amusement park that had been built as its most maximum-security prison and its final resting place.
James - You should examine why the WSJ is doing this - This was obviously seen as a good business move, on some level. Why? This type of thing sells for some reason. Why? What has made the WSJ demo interested in such things?
Posted by: Comment | March 29, 2007 at 08:08 AM
The anonymous commenter assumes that every decision made by a marketing committee or editor is a good one.
Here are some other great marketing and PR moves -
http://www.bulldogreporter.com/dailydog/issues/1_1/dailydog_pr_biz_update/2675-1.html
Posted by: CBH | March 29, 2007 at 09:14 AM