Straight Up Advertisements

Saturday, 04. 10. 2010  –  Opinion

Chris Richards

The Georgia Straight is still the best source of alternative media in print available in Vancouver. They get the best writers (ahem, Daniel Wood), pick up the best syndicated columns (hello, Savage Love) and tackle issues that mainstream media wouldn’t touch. And it’s free. The only problem is that because it’s free, they need to sell a lot of ad space to turn a profit.

Case in point the April 8 edition of The Georgia Straight.

Out of the 88 pages in the publication, only five were completely free of advertisements. One was the cover, one was their cover story (an informative piece on the hot-button topic HST), and another was the front page of their Urban Living pullout section. Roughly 59 of the 88 pages were used for ads. A full five pages for the escorts and sex services (it wouldn’t be the Straight without them), 3 full page ads taken out by telecommunication giants and around 8.5 dedicated to new condo developments seeking buyers. Companies like Flight Centre, The Bay and Virgin were splashed across the pages of a paper whose very name is a jab at the status quo. This is a publication that was founded in the late 60s as an anti-establishment newspaper and was raided by the government for printing obscenities that now features ads for the VANOC Olympic clearance sale and the always respectable Koodo.

In their defense, a large portion of the paper was reserved to promote local venues and community festivals. Not enough can be said about their sponsorship of events like the Vancouver New Music Concert Series and similar initiatives, but it’s hard to take a counter-culture paper seriously, or a publication that likes to throw stones at our Premier when they themselves are living in a glass house built off back page ad dollars coming from housing developers.

I’m not saying The Straight has sold out- picking and choosing advertisers seems just as unethical as anything else. I’m just saying that once I get past the Bell Mobility ads and pretty people in pictures telling me to buy property I have a hard time believing that what I’m reading is any different or more alternative than the daily schlock we are force fed.

Tags: Bell Mobility, Daniel Wood, Flight Centre, HST, Koodo, Savage Love, The Georgia Straight, vancouver, Virgin