Thursday, March 11, 2010

Minneapolis StarTribune doesn't want to be promoted

Stop the presses: the Minneapolis StarTribune doesn't want readers.

I recently posted a TV spot on YouTube that featured journalist Aimee Blanchette promoting the Minneapolis StarTribune, which I thought was an interesting promotional direction being taken by a newspaper to get readers in an age where they're hard to come by - especially for a bankrupt newspaper like the StarTribune.

So, today, I received this lovely email from the newspaper:
You are in violation of copyright law by uploading this video to YouTube; the video is copyrighted material owned by the Star Tribune. Remove it immediately.

We have also contacted You Tube regarding this violation.

Sandy Date
News Research
Star Tribune
So, let me get this straight: a spot being run for money on commercial TV in order to get readers isn't allowed to be broadcast by anyone on YouTube...for free. Now there's a really interesting promotional strategy!

OK, Sandy, I'll give you your wish: I'll never promote your newspaper ever again.

Love, Kenton
xoxo

4 comments:

  1. Wow, that is super lame. Super-duper lame.

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  2. Very touching outro to the letter. I think I even got a little teary-eyed.

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. That's pretty stupid of them. You'd think they'd be happy get some free publicity wherever they can get it.

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