The Clout of an Advertiser
Canwest publisher wrings hands over loss of Telus ads.
Ask a Vancouver Sun manager what business her paper is in and she'll likely tell you it's delivering news and information to readers. The product the newspaper has for sale to its readers is the news.
This might be true if readers actually paid for the news and information, but they don't. At most, they pay about 20 percent of the cost of the paper. The rest is paid by advertisers. In the case of radio, television and the new free dailies, audiences pay nothing.
So the business newspapers are in is delivering readers to advertisers such as Telus. Readers' attention, and not news, is the commodity produced by newspapers, and advertisers are the consumers of that product.
The newspaper's task is to assemble an audience of readers that advertisers will pay to reach.
Political economist Dallas Smythe once called news the "free lunch," whose purpose was to attract the "audience commodity."
But daily newspapers no longer have the advertising monopoly they held during the 1950s and '60s. Newspapers today need to go to great lengths to keep their advertisers, and keep them happy. Perhaps that explains the Sun's distorted coverage of the Telus-Telecommunications Workers Union dispute.
Skulsky's finger wagging memo
We don't know how much Telus spends to reach Sun and Province readers each year. That seems to be a closely guarded secret. But it must be in the millions of dollars.
That's why a sequence of events that occurred recently is not surprising.
On September 5, the B.C. Federation of Labour issued a hot declaration on Telus print ads, as one step to pressure the company to bargain a fair collective agreement with the TWU.
You wouldn't know this if you read the Sun. The only mention of the hot edict was one sentence in the fourth-from-last paragraph in a 27-paragraph story buried inside the business section.
The next day, the Media Union of BC (CEP Local 2000), which represents Sun and Province news workers, sent a letter to the Pacific Newspaper Group saying the union was declaring Telus to be an "unfair employer."
Under their collective agreement, the union and its members have the right to refuse to execute any work coming from Telus.
Pacific Newspaper Group went to the B.C. Labour Relations Board for a declaration that the union's unfair employee edict was "void and unenforceable."
The same day, Pacific Newspaper Group president Dennis Skulsky issued a memo to all employees. He pointed out how important Telus was to the newspaper: "a major advertiser…" The loss of Telus's advertising "would have a considerable financial impact on our newspapers," he wrote.
Then he complained that "we don't understand why we should suffer financially when thousands of Telus bargaining unit employees in BC and Alberta are crossing their own picket line to safeguard their financial well-being."
He also issued a threat: "… if we are not successful in the grievance process we will have to make immediate changes to reduce our costs. CEP Local 2000 made a decision to invoke the unfair employer declaration. That was their choice. Now, we must react to ensure that our expenses remain in line to protect our business."
In other words, you union members will suffer because of what your union is doing to us.
A week later, the Labour Relations Board, a provincial body, threw out the newspapers' grievance, ruling it did not have jurisdiction because the Telus-TWU dispute falls under federal legislation.
The ball was back in Mr. Skulsky's court. In his memo, he worried about competition for Telus advertising dollars from The Globe and Mail and "a host of new radio and television alternatives."
But he did find one way around the hot edict: Telus glossy single-page inserts went out in the Sun and Province on September 21.
Diva? Who says?
Mr. Skulsky has another worry - maintaining good corporate relations with the telecommunications giant. CanWest and Telus are partners in the Board of Trade's Vancouver Fireworks Festival Society' summer fireworks displays. Mr. Skulsky is president of the society and Telus a major sponsor. Mr. Skulsky and Telus Vice-President of Corporate Communications Shawn Thomas were side-by-side at the announcement that Telus was joining the effort.
Good PR all around.
Shawn Thomas reads The Tyee. He didn't post a comment on the web site but he wrote a letter to this columnist in response to my article on the Sun's unfair and distorted coverage of Telus and the TWU. He writes: "I have never seen or read such wonderfully written fiction in the guise of half truths and misinformation."
How so? Mr. Thomas gives only one example of the supposed fiction in the piece. He zeroes in on a passage in which I discuss Mat Wilcox and her firm, The Wilcox Group, and the high priced public relations consulting they provide Telus. In my article you will find Mat Wilcox described as "Vancouver's reigning PR diva." Thomas pounces on that. He writes: "From your references to Diva -- Bruce Bell's [TWU president] favourite word for a person he wrongfully believes is responsible for Telus communications…."
I have never spoken or communicated with Bruce Bell. My use of the word 'diva' comes from a source even Mr. Thomas should credit: BC Business Magazine. And that source was clearly noted by me in the article Mr. Thomas read.
'Conspiracy theories'
Is Mr. Thomas saying the diva - Mat Wilcox - is not responsible for Telus communication?
Here's a Telus news release dated August 4, 2003 about the Fire Aid organization which was providing emergency relief and support to people affected by the Kamloops fires.
Interestingly, Telus and CanWest were partners there too. More good PR for the dynamic duo.
The person responsible for the Telus communication was the diva, Mat Wilcox.
I also stand accused by Mr. Thomas of creating "conspiracy theories around media coverage." I didn't know that counting paragraphs and analyzing framing constitutes a conspiracy theory. It's been standard practice in media analysis studies for many decades.
As to his evidence of the half-truths and misinformation in my article, he has provided none.
Mr. Thomas ends his letter as follows:
"I can only hope that someday I too will be in a position to write so much that is so wrong. However, unlike you, the world that Telus operates in requires, by law, fact based [sic] disclosure and transparency."
Whew.
Fact-based disclosure is indeed now required in the area of investor communications, thanks to Enron. We must give Mr. Thomas credit for the high quality of the company's annual report, which has won lots of awards. But more important is the company's communication with the public and here, it seems, spin is the order of the day.
Donald Gutstein, a senior lecturer in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University, writes a regular media column for The Tyee. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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Tbarnston
6 years ago
Comments on "The Clout of an Advertiser"
..."the world that Telus operates in requires, by law, fact based [sic] disclosure and transparency."
What a load of crap. Telus marketer's signed me to an ADSL bundle last year without telling me that I was entering in to a 3 year contract. Needless to say I had to haggle on the phone for a few days to get things fixed, and only with the help of a sympathetic employee who had been dealing with many similar horror stories from other customers.
So much for disclosure and transparency.
Grumpy
6 years ago
The same is true for RAV! The Sun & Province, as well as CORUS radio supported RAV for fear of losing almost a million in advertising.
For years the Sun never printed a factual story about modern light rail, for fear that, TransLink (as well as BC Transit before) would pull large advertising features and 'puff' news releases from the paper.
That SkyTrain is poorly designed, obsolete transit system is lost on CanWest/Global editors, who serve their monied advertisers.
Questions: Why no one builds with SkyTrain? Why has SkyTrain never been allowed to directly compete directly against LRT? (LRT was rejected by RAVCo. before RAV was put to tender) Why wasn't RAV put to a PPP at the very beginning of the process, like in all honest tendering and not what RAVCo. dictated?
CanWest/Global - Corus managers and editors care to answer?
Ron Erwin
6 years ago
Does anyone really think that Telus is suffering because the Newspaper Guilds won't run their advertising ?
Anyone looking for telephone or internet services don't depend on advertising in newspapers to help them find this necessry service. I mean, how many choices are there ?
In the long term does this not put Guild members in jeopardy of their job security ? I men, what's next, a hot edict on Wal*Mart or The Bay because of their possible labour disputes.
This secondary stuff should be illegal in BC as it is elsewhere.
We can't even get CBC to broadcast a non hosted CFL game on BC because of our unique labour laws. It's time for the BC Govt. to get with the times and toss out all this old NDP labour BS.
I can see this happening at the next NDP convention. Even they know it's time to enter the 21st century.
GingerGoodwin
6 years ago
Ron Erwin,
Your comprehension skills are clearly on par with your political analyses. The union involved is the B.C. Media Union, Communications Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP Local 2000). It says that clearly in the article. The Newpaper Guild, an American union, has not represented Vancouver Sun and Province employees for ten years.
Ron Erwin
6 years ago
Okay, substitute ' Communications Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada ' for ' Newspaper Gulid " and my statement still stands. Sorry for the miss.
allan
6 years ago
As a former CEP, Local 2000 member I just want to express my support for this union's solidarity with other working people.
It makes me proud to have been a member of a union that goes out of its way to help other unions.
I must point out here, for the benefit of the few dinasours we have attracted at Tyee that CEP is the very union one of you claimed on this very site a few weeks ago had lost its clout.
I believe it was referred to as the former typographic union, which merged into CEP almost two decades ago. Talk about dated blathering.
Let me remind you CEP members at the Sun, Province and Victoria Times Colonists are still the best paid in North America.
Not bad for a has-been union, eh.
Aside from that, what the union did in refusing to handle Telus ads was to simply follow the collective agreement sign by CEP and (perhaps there was a gun put to their head), Can/West.
Telus knows this, Canwest knows this and the BC Labour Relations Board also knows. Even the minister of Labour knows that if his aides have half a brain.
So, in short CEP members acted in good faith and took a legal action it and the company both agreed to.
What's the problem?
Oh, dear Telus can't get its word out. TFB fellas, but after having tried to contact Telus on numerous occasions to have phone problems resolved, only to run into arrogant head office stafff who essentially urged me to get lost if I didn't like their crap, I again offer TFB fellas.
Cheers CEP.
dO wAH daDDI
6 years ago
FYI - In Corporate Communications circles, they just don't come much more two-faced, egotistical, or self-centered than our friend, Shawn Thomas, eh! LUV, dO wAH
Marysue
6 years ago
Yeah, T Barnston, Telus lied to me, too, to get my contract way back when! I am still livid! They told me I'd have unlimited e-mail, the lying bums! My mailbox is only 15mb! So I have the bulk of my mail going to another e-address, just to ensure that my e-box never gets too full to receive anymore. AND the phone lines in my home town are the pits---crackles and rales--sounds like a person with congestive heart failure. Frequent disconnects. What the hell good is Telus? What was the matter with the former BC Tel? We need to re-nationalize our communications industry post and get rid of CEO dinosaurs like Endwhistle and other corporate farts and their 3rd world scabs. If your business is in Canada, then you employ Canadians, period! Money made in Canada should stay in Canada. To hell with foreign investments. Let's use our "surpluses"for what they were meant to be used for--helping Canadians. Never mind selling public assests, enterprises, properties and lands to Americans.
hunter
6 years ago
How interesting Mary-Sue. Back in the 80's those of us that dared mention that BC Tel should be a crown corporation were suspended. Now with all this crap with Telus and it's ego masquerading as a ceo it's too much to take. Keep in mind that dear telus still hasn't been able to do the "telus tv" yet but that so called "backwater" Sasktel has had it for years. Damned crown corporations!
Banquos ghost
6 years ago
Telus is the best advertisment against the privatization of Crown Corporations that has ever existed.
The problem is, there aren't any voices in the ledge or in parl't who are willing to articulate that.
Even the NDP have been trying to divorce themselves from the idea of public ownership of utilities.
It continues to bewilder me why.
It's one of the reasons I'm getting involved in the party after all these years.
Although, in fairness, it must be said, my committment is contingent on the NDP deciding that being a political party and getting elected is more important than being an arm of labour.
If the provincial arm chooses to remain at the beck and call of labour, I'm out of there.
It's time for the party to grow up.
Marysue
6 years ago
I want Sasktel here, Hunter! I used to work for BC Tel way back when I had the figure of an 11-year- old boy and all the savvy of Pollyanna. I think Endwhistle would look fabulous in a suit of melted pavement with fowl outer attire. I phoned for an internet connection fix and got several robotic voices before one assured me that someone would answer my plea within 26 minutes. I tried doing a few things myself and at least managed to conncect with the likely scabbed Telus help, but I guess the few changes I made were the right ones, for when I restarted, it all worked. That will teach me not to visit the CanWaste sites (canada.com, etc.)even to enter their stupid polls. On those sites, spy-cookies and and other flotsam and jetsum (jetsam?)get stuck to the butt of one's Browser, so that the overworked firewall freezes everything up. Purged the lines a bit, but there's probably a few entrails left... So will be expecting lots of SPAM to my e-box tomorrow, I'm sure:*(
kurt
6 years ago
Gutstein is a senior lecturer in the School of Communication? Oh, dear.
dangrice.com
6 years ago
If only we were so lucky as to never see another stupid pig or gecko in the newspapers...
Marysue
6 years ago
Banquos ghost...just saw you post! Yeah, I agree! That is why those of us who are progressive must join the NDP in droves and overwhelm the drones who are stifling the party's progress towards democracy, egality, fairness and justice--and common sense!
scylla
6 years ago
Marysue, I admire your ability to find some humour in Telus' humourless machinations.
I second your agreement with Banquo. It's odd that while labour can easily see how the Old Line parties are manipulated through their acknowledged partnership with business interests, they cannot see a similar difficulty with the NDP and Labour.
However, after being shunned by pro-labour people in the days when I was actively involved in the NDP, I've resisted the impulse to rejoin. A curse upon the navel-gazing ideologues of all stripes!
Frank
6 years ago
Banquo, good for you and good luck.
peefer
6 years ago
Nah, forget the NDP. They have nearly as much invested in multinationals as the Liberals. After all a heck of a lot of unions work for them. We need an independent alternative to represent the rest of us, but where the heck is it?