Will brands become our news sources?
In the past few weeks, The NYTimes, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic all made public cases for more people to read their journalism. The NYTimes and The Atlantic even hired some of the top ad agencies to craft their pitch.
Why all the sudden money spent on marketing? Post-election scandals of fake news and information bubbles point to a loss of credibility among media outlets. But news publications face bigger problems than a loss of public trust. They also need to redefine their value in the face of a growing competitor for publishing and attention: brands.
Take Donald Trump’s immigration ban. Some of the strongest responses didn’t come from news outlets, but directly from brands including Lyft, Starbucks, and AirBnB. These companies made public statements and helped people understand what Trump’s directive meant for the economy. While news sources covered the brands, the brands went direct to consumer on Twitter, while affected travellers and protesters provided quick on-the-scene updates.
In the past, the media offered impartiality and fact-finding to big events like the immigration ban. But with that impartiality in question, it’s possible to imagine a world where the news media doesn’t exist, and information becomes dispersed solely via direct channels from brands and affected individuals.
Brands are also beefing up their journalistic skills. They are becoming content producers in their own right, while ad agencies are hiring journalist talent and creating real-time news rooms to create content for big events. When given the time, brands have the financial wherewithal to invest in beautiful, feature worthy content with a point of view on current events. Check out Nike’s recent ‘Equality’ video for instance:
Hence, the recent campaigns by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic to convince the public why their brands of journalism still deserve our attention.
Will these journalist campaigns work?
The New York Times launched their campaign ‘Truth‘ during the Oscars, spending around $2 million for the media buy alone. Their video is a stream of quotes all beginning with “The truth is,” complete with some self-awareness of media bias with a quote stating: “The truth is the media is dishonest.”
It concludes the stream with three statements: “The truth is hard. The truth is hard to know. The truth is more important than ever,” before closing on the NYTimes’ logo.
I love the NYTimes, but this ad leaves a lot to be desired. Such as, why is the truth important ? Sure, bias is a rampant problem. And there are often multiple ‘truths’ that deserve to be reported on.
But social media habits during this election revealed that people care about one version of the truth: theirs. The most common response I hear from friends in regards to people who post opposing political views on Facebook is, “I unfollowed them.” The bubbles aren’t just a news media problem; people are choosing to live in them.
Instead of just saying the truth is hard (which we all know), how about the NYTimes tells me why I need to look for it anyway.
The Washington Post does a better job of this with their new tagline: “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”
This tagline has been called dark, and “dramatic and self important.”
Steven Colbert ripped on it. Slate penned a response titled “15 classic metal album titles less dark than the Washington Post’s new motto.
But it has also been called awesome and a prophecy.
The tagline is brave. It’s succinct. Placing it as a subheader probably cost a lot less than the NYTimes’ buying an Oscars spot.
But most importantly, the Post’s tagline gives us a reason to keep following the news. It appeals to deep American pride for our democracy. If the truth is uncomfortable, the death of democracy is worse. Like a good brand, the Washington Post’s new tagline espouses a belief that we can get behind.
But the strongest call to read the news comes from The Atlantic with their campaign, Question your answers.
Instead of lecturing readers about the nebulous nature of the truth and why we should make time to read about it, The Atlantic starts within us to reveal that privately, we question the truth. Where NYTimes and WaPo tell us what to do, The Atlantic shows us they understand us.
The video stars Michael K. Williams, of The Wire and The Night Of, questioning himself about whether he is being typecast. Williams is vulnerable and refreshingly human.
‘Question your answers’ gives us permission to question current events, and to not just fall in line with what our friends/race/gender/political affiliation/favorite brands/favorite publication tell us to think. And it shows that The Atlantic understands us beyond what we’re willing to say outloud.
The video is not as short and punchy as WaPo’s new tagline or the NYTimes’ truth ad. You have to watch the full video to get it. But, like the nature of the video, news today requires deeper introspection and research into multiple sides of issues.
Perhaps the most strategic part of ‘Question your answers’ is that is gives us a reason to value journalism beyond what brands can provide. Journalism is not about just reporting on the latest news (which Twitter is made for) or selling a point of view that makes us feel good (which brands can and will own). Great journalism should make us think.
Originally published at brandingin4d.wordpress.com on February 25, 2017.
