Media Culpa

I don’t like to repeat myself, so I’m glad that this year I can’t say “I wish I could get a 4.5% raise, but then again, I’m not the Prime Minister.” A year ago I pointed out that Prime Minister Göran Persson got a higher raise than the average worker. This year Persson settles for a 4.3% raise, from 116,000 kronor to 121,000 kronor.

It’s good to see that Persson increases the gap to the voters. The estimated (pdf) actual salary increase in the local sector for 2006 is 3.8% and the increase in hourly wages in the private sector is estimated to 3.6% this year and 4.1% next year.

Update: In 2002, Gunnar Grenfors explained the strategy of Statsrådsarvodesnämnden, the committee that decides the salaries for the ministers: “The ministers shall be compared with the elite”.

This must be some kind of landmark in the history of Swedish online media. Expressen speculates in which Swedish player that leaked information about the locker room quarrel after the World Cup game against Trinidad & Tobago and posts a photo that is, well, 90% black. If they only could do the same with the texts, I might even start buying Expressen.

Footnote: The black square hasn’t stopped readers from trying to figure out who’s on the photo. The blog Bara Ben På Glenn Hysén (Bare legs on Glenn Hysén) points to Anders Svensson.

Tags: World Cup, media, media, fotboll, vm.

I apologize for the low standard of this blog recently, maybe it’s the heat or the World Cup, but this is too fun not to post about. ESPN in Brazil have created a World Cup soccer urinal. Photos can be found at AdFreak. [och jag tänker definitivt inte, alltså inte, dra något skämt om socker i…ja ni förstår]

Tags: World Cup, advertising, Brazil, reklam, fotboll, vm.

Many companies can’t resist the urge to piggyback on the World Cup in Germany by launching PR stunts, the one crazier than the next. This press release from Svensk Köttinformation (Swedish Meat Information) seems rather desperate. The press release is a recipe for “klopse” or “German meatballs” and the selling point is “one ball for every player”. That’s the kind of argument you heard from your grandma when you were a kid: “why do they have to run after the ball, can’t they have one ball each?”.

Charging for content on the web can be a difficult task, especially if the story is not your own. Aftonbladet only lets subscribing members know who has the number 2-10 best cleavages in Hollywood (Scarlett Johansson is top ranked) according to a poll by In Touch magazine. The rest of us just use Google.

Update: There are more examples where Aftonbladet are charging for content that is free elsewhere, like this price list of used cars:

– For subscribers only at Aftonbladet.
– Free at Auto Motor Sport (pdf).

Journalisten (“the Journalist”) writes about how the magazine Land lets advertisers influence editorial content by creative co-operation. For instance, an article about singer Christer Sjögren had been initiated through a co-operation between the magazine and Sjögren’s event company BSC. And for 20,000 – 25,000 kronor the magazine includes advertisers in its crosswords so that the answer to “Makes good chocolate” is “Droste”. [Via Vassa Eggen]

Another example of blurring lines between editorial content and ads is today’s Metro. The Swedish free daily Metro has always been creative in integrating advertisers into the paper, for example by using the entire front and back for ads. Today Metro launches a co-operation with Canon called “Metro cities – the expert’s guide to Europe”. Nowhere in these two pages it states that this is an advertisment. What it does say is that all photos are shot with a Canon Powershot. The second page contains a half page ad for – Canon PowerShot A700. Not very credible.