biting the hands that feeds

Biting the hand that feeds

Over in the commercial media, times are tough. Especially in newspapers.

Here's an excerpt from an email sent out by a News Ltd executive in Western Australia.

Last Sunday we published an article in our real estate section that failed Journalism 101 ... As the Managing Director of The Sunday Times I unreservedly apologise for the article.
- Jason Scott, Managing Director, The Sunday Times, 24th August, 2011

Goodness! The managing director, no less - it's usually the editor who worries about editorial content. Managing directors of newspapers worry about money. And usually, that means advertisers.

And to whom was this grovel addressed to?

To our valued real estate clients
- Jason Scott, Managing Director, The Sunday Times, 24th August, 2011

That's right. Real estate agents. Who, thanks to those endless house for sale ads, account for a sizeable chunk of the Sunday Times's revenue ...

Not to mention what they contribute to realestate.com.au, by far the leading property website in Australia, which is 60% owned by News Ltd.

So what was this abysmal journalism that Mr Scott was apologising for? It was a double-page spread in the Sunday Times's

Weekend Property
- Sunday Times Weekend, Property, 21-27 August, 2011

Home Alone

It can cost more than $20,000 to sell your home through a real estate agent. We speak to two vendors who decided to go it alone.
- Sunday Times Weekend, Property, 21-27 August, 2011

No! Without an agent? And look at them ... They're positively beaming ...

Being able to talk directly with the buyers ensured queries could be answered quickly and efficiently
- Sunday Times Weekend, Property, 21-27 August, 2011

We saved about $17,000 and put in about 19 hours work in five weeks.
- Sunday Times Weekend, Property, 21-27 August, 2011

Well, you can imagine how the Sunday Times's 'valued real estate clients' reacted to that piece.

Actually, you don't have to imagine it, because we can show you.

It was kicked off by investment property specialist Mark Hay, with an email addressed to pretty much every real estate agent west of the Nullarbor. It was, as they say, heavy with irony ...

Fellow Colleagues,
For those of you who use the Murdoch-backed Sunday Times you will have no doubt noted the huge push they gave us as agents in their wonderful article on page four and five this weekend!
- Mark Hay, Investment property specialist, 23rd August, 2011

Mr Hay didn't mess about.

Can I encourage you to boycott the paper in light of this, or better still this is a perfect reason why we as agents should build our own web site to challenge realestate.com.au and the others who keep putting the squeeze on us. Anyone interested?
- Mark Hay, Investment property specialist, 23rd August, 2011

Lots of people were ...

I am interested in a change from this

David Whiteman
Ray White
- David Whiteman, Ray White, 24th August, 2011

It is heartening to see ... the discussion around creating a new industry owned and controlled website.

Geoff Baldwin
RE/MAX W.A.
- Geoff Baldwin, RE/MAX WA, 25th August, 2011

The Davey Group would be behind a move to advertise through REIWA.com only.

Andrew Davey
- Andrew Davey, Davey Group, 24th August, 2011

Mark Hay was over the moon ...

Wow, the response has been overwhelming! ... By far the huge majority confirm we should crank up REIWA ...
- Mark Hay, Investment property specialist, 24th August, 2011

REIWA is the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia, which has long had its own property ad website ...

Feature Properties for sale

- reiwa.com.au

And has recently teamed up with the Sunday Times's rival, The West Australian, to produce

WestRealEstate.com.au

- WestRealEstate.com.au

The West is spruiking its new website for all its worth ...

WestReal Estate

This exciting new site is offering vendors a free listing when their agent is a current REIWA subscriber ...
- The West Australian, 25th August, 2011

No wonder the Managing Director of the Sunday Times was freaking out at the thought of all those 'valued real estate clients' jumping ship. Hence his crawling email ...

I give you my personal guarantee that The Sunday Times will work hard to restore our relationship to the mutual good health and prosperity that we have achieved together over many years.
- Jason Scott, Managing Director, 24th August, 2011

The problem was, wrote Jason Scott, that the Home Alone piece was unbalanced, because it ...

... did not contain any response from agents or real estate industry groups and nor did it look at vendors who had tried to sell their houses privately who had then appointed an agent and got the right result.
- Jason Scott, Managing Director, 24th August, 2011

Well, that's true. And it was a bit of a puff job for one particular do-it-yourself consultancy.

But some of the offended agents weren't going to be fobbed off with a private apology.

Glenn Buckley of Think Pink Realty - yes, that's its name - wrote back to Mr Scott, in a nice pink font ...

Your apology is noted. However, what is clearly required here is a full rebuttle (sic) in this weeks issue of your newspaper...
- Glenn Buckley, Think Pink Realty, 24th August, 2011

Well, he didn't get that. But what he did get, in that Sunday's Weekend Property, was a full, double page puff job for real estate agents ...

Agent wanted

Why are agents worth the money? Following last week's article on private selling, we look at the other side ...
- Sunday Times, Weekend Property, 28th August, 2011

Three happy clients, and no fewer than seven deeply sincere real estate agents. And why was that published, we asked the acting editor ... well, naturally,

To balance the one-sided feature that appeared on August 21.
- Bill Rule, Deputy Editor, Sunday Times, 2nd September, 2011

Balance. The essence of sound journalism. No mention of that other principle of newspaper management: safeguarding editorial from advertiser pressure.