CBC pulls Postmedia ads

Broadcaster says newspaper websites are in direct competition with its own news site

TORONTO - The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. has pulled an advertising campaign that promoted Postmedia Network’s rollout of a paid content model for its newspaper websites on the basis that it competes with the national broadcaster’s own digital news site.

In conjunction with the introduction of Postmedia’s metered paywalls across all of its online publications, on May 14 it launched a national advertising campaign with print, digital and billboard spots as well as a handful of television ads.

Postmedia — which owns Canada’s largest chain of English-language daily newspapers, including the National Post — said it planned to spend about $15,000 advertising with CBC television stations in Windsor, Regina and Edmonton.

In an email exchange with Postmedia on Monday, CBC’s media sales team said the ads ran for a period of time before an employee from the digital department at one of the stations complained that they seemed to be advertising a product that competes with CBC’s own digital news site, CBC.ca.

The national broadcaster’s sales management division agreed and the spots were pulled.

“Traditionally we do not run advertising for assets that we compete with,” Alan Dark, general manager of CBC revenue group in charge of media sales and marketing, said in an interview Wednesday.

CBC accepts advertising for newspaper and magazine ads because it does not operate those types of media, it said, and it informed Postmedia the campaign could continue if the ads were changed to focus on the chain’s print newspaper products rather than its digital products.

“We don’t run advertising to promote assets that we compete with directly and we have local sites in those markets that compete directly with (the Postmedia sites).”

Postmedia owns the Windsor Star, Regina Leader-Post and Edmonton Journal, as well as the Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Calgary Herald, Vancouver Sun and Vancouver Province.

“That strategy isn’t different for us than any other media supplier,” Mr. Dark said.

Siobhan Vinish, senior vice-president of marketing and audience development at Postmedia, said Wednesday the company was surprised by the decision to pull the ads.

The spots are still running on CTV and Citytv stations in other markets, she said. Those stations are owned by BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc., respectively, and have news websites which compete with Postmedia properties.