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Apple’s Free Ride: Why Journalists Treat Product Launches Like News

observer.com

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Re: Apple’s Free Ride: Why Journalists Treat Product Launches Like News

#41

Post by Mystalic »

Ryan's a smart guy, but he has got this one wrong.

Product launches ARE news, no matter how you slice it. News is simply a product of what people want to know about, plus what people SHOULD know about.

So people want to know about new Apple products. So the news media delivers.

But they also SHOULD know about things like the failure of iOS 6 maps, which has been roundly slammed by the media. If the media were truly in bed with Apple, would it be writing this kind of negative portrayal?

Is there symbiotic relationship between the marketing departments of companies and journalists? Absolutely. Do journalists give them free passes? Hell no.

Re: Apple’s Free Ride: Why Journalists Treat Product Launches Like News

#43

Post by zerostar07 »

There's two sides to this relationship: the media know apple sells as well, so they do their best to keep them prominent.

That said, the iMania can go too far at times: Today on the BBC news website (even right now), first item is "19 people killed in pakistan protests", 2nd item "Apple says map app will improve". I understand that first world problems have their share, but we 're talking about a very small part of the population that will actually care about either maps issues or the people who are affected by them.

Re: Apple’s Free Ride: Why Journalists Treat Product Launches Like News

#44

Post by ryanholiday »

Mystalic wrote: post #41

Ryan's a smart guy, but he has got this one wrong. Product launches ARE news, no matter how you slice it. News is simply a product of what people want to know about, plus what people SHOULD know about. So people want to know about new Apple products. So the news media delivers. But they also SHOULD know about things like the failure of iOS 6 maps, which has been roundly slammed by the media. If the media were truly i…

The product itself can at times be news--especially if it is a major technological advancement. What is NOT news is the "event," the perfectly choreographed dance between the corporation and the media, where the company manufactures fanfare and urgency and theater around the launch and the media turns it into reality by writing about it.

Many news staples fall into this category from movie premieres to press releases to anniversaries to deliberate "leaks."

Re: Apple’s Free Ride: Why Journalists Treat Product Launches Like News

#45

Post by notatoad »

It's hardly a free ride. Sure, journalists pay more attention to apple than they maybe deserve, but that's not because journalists have some great apple bias. it's because the apple PR department works their asses off to cater to journalists and make their product launches media friendly events. They deliver their product in easily reportable chunks, and they craft a public image so that news about apple is what the media's customers want to read about.

Re: Apple’s Free Ride: Why Journalists Treat Product Launches Like News

#46

Post by dundun »

trotsky wrote: post #15

The advertising buys are misleading, as Apple doesn't include (or directly disclose afaik) the money spent on their paid placements, which anyone who watches western media knows is quite substantial.

Apple contents that it actually doesn't spend money for most of the placements: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04...

I suppose you could put a monetary value on the free giveaways or horse trading that gets done though.

Re: Apple’s Free Ride: Why Journalists Treat Product Launches Like News

#47

Post by rbanffy »

techtalsky wrote: post #42

"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations." -- George Orwell

Well... There are many phone makers who would be happy if the iPhone 5 got less press coverage.

Re: Apple’s Free Ride: Why Journalists Treat Product Launches Like News

#48

Post by paul9290 »

It's obvious people go crazy for anything new Apple launches thus you as a blogger would be foolish to not write about it... Further it's obviously newsworthy.

Apple brought forth the smartphone revolution ( nailed the execution and others since copied). Also they have created other things like Siri (others copied their execution too). Thus it's no surprise millions are extremely interested in what new tech they'll be releasing.

For me though the iPhone 5 isn't too exciting... Nothing revolutionary or profound. Personally i was hoping they'd add a QR scanner to the built in camera.

Re: Apple’s Free Ride: Why Journalists Treat Product Launches Like News

#49

Post by jaredsohn »

paul9290 wrote: post #48

It's obvious people go crazy for anything new Apple launches thus you as a blogger would be foolish to not write about it... Further it's obviously newsworthy. Apple brought forth the smartphone revolution ( nailed the execution and others since copied). Also they have created other things like Siri (others copied their execution too). Thus it's no surprise millions are extremely interested in what new tech they'll b…

Apple did not create Siri; it was an acquisition. However, Apple should get credit for bringing it to a wide audience.

Re: Apple’s Free Ride: Why Journalists Treat Product Launches Like News

#50

Post by pserwylo »

There is a show run by the government broadcaster in Australia called Mediawatch. It does just that, keeps watch on the news organisations to highlight when they are acting inappropriately.

They did a short segment on the launch of the new iPad this year [0] in which they echoed the sentiments of this article. They were especially critical of the excessive coverage given by the government broadcaster themselves, which is supposed to be particularly careful when it comes to even mentioning brand names in most other contexts (e.g. They never use the sponsors names when referring to sporting stadiums):

"Why on earth, we wondered, did ABC News Breakfast spend nine minutes in all on a bunch of techheads queuing outside a shop with a piece of fruit on it, to buy a marginally updated product that they could have got anywhere?"

[0] www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s3464157.htm (the video and transcript are both here).

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