Once upon a time, you would open a magazine like OK! or Cosmo and see an article that ended with the magazine's website address, ostensibly so readers could find more information about the subject। "More information" usually just meant extraneous lists or irrelevant facts, but more importantly, tons of ads and pop-ups that brought in extra ad revenue.Well, that was before the era of plummeting newsstand sales, falling at a rate that makes Jann Wenner stay up at night counting solid gold sheep। Now that most celebrity news of the "breaking" variety is fed to the public through blogs and websites, the gossip-mongering print industry fights to keep their newest issues moving off the shelves. Thus, the tried and tired gimmick of offering only glimpses of stories online, with the rest found exclusively in the print edition. Good tactic sure, but it's too bad the pitch will help Sarah Palin/John McCain get elected:
Last week there was the National Enquirer's Palin controversy (no, not the one about Bristol, the one about Palin's alleged affair), where the tabloid withheld the juicy gossip for the print-edition only। OK!'s big Palin story used a similar tactic; offering a tiny slice of intrigue on their website and then announcing, "For the entire story on Sarah Palin's baby scandal, including where she stands on the issues, pick up the new OK! - on newsstands everywhere on Thursday!"
So what's wrong with trying to coerce readers back to the printed word? Well for one, those publications were at the heart of Palin's media attack last week, when she accused the MSM of being unfairly biased and treating Barack Obama like a celebrity (he's been on the National Enguirer's cover too)। The more the tabloids use Palin scandals to desperately sell off copies, the more ammo they give the governor in her campaign to become invincible against real journalistic attacks.
Not to say that the National Enquirer isn't a real paper…they broke that Edwards story after all. Just not online.
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