All publications fall victim to this issue. You try to maintain journalistic credibility in your editorial, yet you still want advertisers to purchase space in your publiciation even if you say not-so-nice things about them.
Advertisers know this, and they simply put up with it if it’s a big publication that they want to be recognized in. But what if you have an advertiser that’s much bigger than your publication? Like say someone like Apple? Do you bendover for the advertiser and do whatever they say, or do you let your editorial team write a feature entitled, “Ten Things We Hate about Apple”?
Well, such was the dilemma at PC World, and Harry McCracken, editor of PC World. I’ve known Harry for many years and have worked with him before. Years ago, I produced PC World’s first videos for the site, PC World.com. And his sister, Elizabeth McCracken, wrote a great book entitled “Niagra Falls All Over Again” about the fictional history of a duo of vaudeville comedians. I’m a big comedy history buff and was very impressed with her insight into comedy.
But I’m trailing off. Harry made the choice not to let an advertiser force an editorial decision and left PC World. I don’t know the full story, but one thing that needs to be taken into account is that journalistic credibility has value too. The reason PC World has readers is because of it. It’s their value. This story will definitely hurt the value of PC World. My guess, a lot worse than the possibility of losing Apple as an advertiser.
Regardless, the one person whose value increased in this whole mess is Harry McCracken. He made it clear that he’s walking out burning no bridges. In fact, he plans on continuing to do some freelance work for PC World.
UPDATE: Saw some comments on “Good Morning Silicon Valley” on this story so I posted this addendum.
All these comments about PC Mag and PCW being pro-Windows or some other advertiser reminds me of a comment Bob Costas made about fans who would call in after a game and complain, “I’m a fan of TEAM X. Why are you so pro TEAM Y(the opposition)?”
Half of the calls would come in that way. And then the other half would come in “I’m a fan of TEAM Y. Why are you so pro TEAM X?”
If you’re looking for bias, you will find it. Especially if you’ve established yourself a fan of one company (Apple) or operating system (Linux).
