Busty cannae bang the Drum for this editorial puffery

busty idolNow I know this may be a recurring theme, but as I have related on more than one occasion, never let it be said that I like to slag off rival magazines. I don’t like it, I bloody love it. Yet some of you have noted that both Campaign and Marketing Week Monthly get more than their fair share of Busty tongue lashings.
In a bid to redress the balance, I decided to head over to The Drum, the one-time provincial magazine which now claims to be Europe’s most read online marketing publication.
Anyway, according to founder Gordon Young, The Drum has apparently just been accused of inciting terrorism by YouTube for posting a story and video about an organisation called Families Against Terrorism & Extremism.
While this turns out to be little more than an algorithm issue, there is a much more heinous crime that our friends at Carnyx Group have perpetrated, yep, The Drum Network.
According to the blurb, “if you are seeking fame and fortune for your agency then The Drum Network offers a great value way for you to build your profile and get seen by all the right people in the industry. Also, our tailored programme of live and online events enables ambitious agency owners, directors and senior executives to build their business knowledge by learning from agency experts who have been there and done it”.
All sounds pretty impressive – if not slightly incestuous – and with 140 agency members coughing up nearly £8,000 year each, that’s over a million quid coming in, for cannie lad Gordon it’s a belter, as they say North of the Border.
Scratch under the surface, however, and things aren’t quite so simple it seems, as, according to my sources, when you call up the news desk to pitch in a story or comment piece, they then decide whether it is a “proper one” which merits coverage or that you have to join “The Drum Network” to get it published. And, in fact, when you do join you can publish whatever you like…puffery anyone?
Now, call me old-fashioned – in fact, you can call me what you like – but where is the editorial integrity in that? Whatever happened to judging a story on its merits? Then again, maybe I’ve just got a nasty dose of “spondoolyitis”…

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