Editor of New Republic on Euro anti-semitism

[Ming]

Originally posted by GP
1. What type(s) of messages did you deliver? What types of audiences did you target?

My clients that ran in the these types of magazines were McDonnell Douglas and Northern Telecom (now NORTEL), both accounts which I worked on for over 15 years each.
Obviously MDC was the bigger spender, as they were the largest defense contractor in the US at that time. We did generic "corporate" messages to make people feel like MDC was a good corporate citizen no matter what your political leanings were. We also did A TON of product specific advertising highlighting why MDC should either get a contract... or continue spending on contracts they already had. We did a lot of the"you are getting your money's worth with the F -15" type ads.
Also, if a program got in trouble... we were there. My favorate was when the guidence system for tomahawk cm's were having problems getting lost on terrain covered by snow because it was different than what the maps had... The head line was "Neither sleet, nor rain, nor snow shall keep the tomahawk from it's appointed rounds"... we won a few awards with that one
We also did the ole, support the space station type messages, since we would profit from it.

For NORTEL... we did some advocacy advertising during the fight for Telecom Deregulation... but mostly in just NJ and CQ.

I'll admit we NEVER ran in Mother Jones for either

2. Did you consider using the Washington Post, New York Times or Wall Street Journal to hit your target? Maybe the Sunday opinion section of the NYT or WP?

The Washington Post was our biggest expenditure... but a lot of that was due to it's far higher out of pocket cost per insertion.
We helped create franchise ad postions around the regular features/columns that covered the "HILL". We also helped "persuade" the WSJ to create a specific "DC" edition, so we could buy it in an efficient manner with minimal waste.
We used the NYT when we thought we needed to strengthen our support against the more liberals members of the HILL.

3. NR and TNR aren't as much of counterparts as people say they are. (I know it is popular to do so...) TNR is more scholarly in tone than NR (analogy might be NPR and Limbaugh...although both mags are better than their radio analogues..) TNR is also more middle of the road than hard left. Where NR is pretty hard right.

Today, your comments are pretty on target. It was different 15 to 20 years ago. TNR was much farther left and NR tried to be more scholarly, but both have changed over time. NR is more of a far right cheerleader now... and it's almost comical. TNR while trying to adress the popular center, still comes up with stuff that prompted this thread...

[Natan]

Yeah Marcus, this is an exception. If you want real right-wing isolationist gay-bashing misogynistic fervor, you have to read the National Review like I do.

[TCO]

Could you comment a little more on the audiences targeted, Ming? Decision makers?

[Ming]

Originally posted by GP
Could you comment a little more on the audiences targeted, Ming? Decision makers?

While it did vary some by campaign, over all, our key audiences were:

Executive Branch

The Senate
- Senior Aides
- Junior Aides
- All those that influence them

DOD
Joint Chiefs
Individual Services
Military bases near Washington

Key Lobbyist Groups
Media
Think Tanks
MDC employees

We used to do our own "readership" studies against these audiences. No surprise, The WP was read regularly by almost 95% of the people we wanted to reach... With the WSJ coming in second... Followed by Defense News, and then the all the opinion leader and trade journals. General media like Time and Newsweek also did well, and we usually bought those on a DC Metro basis only. Radio stations like WTOP were also solid. We would also spend heavily on the Sunday Morning Talking Head programs, which are a must viewing for our audience.

Now, other media companies have done similar studies which support all the early research that I had done.

[TCO]

Cool. I know WTOP. WMAL would also be good.

[Ming]

Originally posted by GP
Cool. I know WTOP. WMAL would also be good.

Yeah... we agreed... it was the only other radio station we bought

[Chris 62]

Ah, another writer cast the veil of doubt on Europe, and we see the same ol answers.

How unexpected.

[TCO]

Originally posted by Ming



Yeah... we agreed... it was the only other radio station we bought

HMMM. Does this mean that this stuff is just common sense or does it mean I have a good intuition...

[Gatekeeper]

I am curious as to why Shimon Peres was specifically named by those who award the Nobel Peace Prize. Has he suddenly become a terrorist? Say, like Yasser Arafat?

Gatekeeper

[TCO]

Originally posted by Chris 62
Ah, another writer cast the veil of doubt on Europe, and we see the same ol answers.

How unexpected.

Look, Chris! You just need to get it straight. It's our role to be the leader of the free world and EU's role to b*tch and whine. We're not supposed to waste time writing about EU silliness.

[TCO]

Originally posted by Ming



Yeah... we agreed... it was the only other radio station we bought

I don't need to see any market research to tell what Washingotn opinion junkies listen to...or read...

[Imran Siddiqui]

I am curious as to why Shimon Peres was specifically named by those who award the Nobel Peace Prize. Has he suddenly become a terrorist? Say, like Yasser Arafat?

Arafat was named by another group. Any suprise that our media has seized on the group that is for taking away Peres's prize and not the one that is for taking away Arafat's?

[DinoDoc]

GP: Even if you get paid by the word?

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Any suprise that our media has seized on the group that is for taking away Peres's prize and not the one that is for taking away Arafat's?

I think that they should have covered the one that advocates taking away Arafat's myself and ignored the one for taking away Peres's prize.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I think they should have covered both equally.