NZ Herald promoted article - Poor attempt to customise article for New Zealand readers

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Technofreak

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#226273 29-Dec-2017 15:25

I saw this promoted headline on the NZ Herald site "Why Cab Drivers Can Never Get a Speeding Ticket".

The headline intrigued me and while knowing promoted articles are usually not worth reading I decided to have gander. I had to find out what was so special about cab drivers.

http://www.directelite.com/c/81f8b26c756f699e?utm_source=outbrain&utm_term=World&utm_content=Why+Cab+Drivers+Can+Never+Get+a+Speeding+Ticket

Well the real headline on the linked article was With This New Advanced Radar Detector, You Will Never Get a Traffic Ticket Again. Hardly anything to do with cab drivers specifically.

The article it self was obviously based on a generic article but customised for New Zealand. Well actually a very poor attempt at customisation. The article contained references to terms we don't use e.g. citations, miles instead of kilometres, National Motorist Association, talked about speeding tickets affecting insurance premiums which isn't the case in new Zealand, and poor grammar showing the article was probably written by someone who spoke English as a second language.

While I'm not debating the merits (or lack there of) of a radar detector, I wonder how the promoters of articles like this think they will gain any credibility regarding the merits of their product if they cannot get some of the basics right.

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alasta

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#1926646 29-Dec-2017 19:07

Fairfax and NZME were recently slapped on the wrist by the Press Council for publishing fake news like this. It's interesting to hear that they are still doing it.

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#1926659 29-Dec-2017 19:33

I saw the same crap article / Ad / click bait and rolled my eyes

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freitasm

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#1926730 29-Dec-2017 20:23

"The headline intrigued me..." and you fell for it.

Clickbait, advertising disguised as "news article".

Articles that start with "Why..." are almost always clickbait.

Articles linked from Outbrain as "Suggested articles" are always clickbait.

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#1926732 29-Dec-2017 20:28

stuff/Press were doing the same. All the articles that looked like locally hosted news when you hovered over were surveys, quizzes or external clickbaiters at the bottom of articles. (2nd row nestled under real ones)

Recently cleaned up a bit, possibly coinciding with the slap on wrist. And now display PAID ARTICLES and the host, where it use to be totally transparent other than hover-over checks

Technofreak

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#1926763 29-Dec-2017 21:57

alasta:

Fairfax and NZME were recently slapped on the wrist by the Press Council for publishing fake news like this. It's interesting to hear that they are still doing it.

I think they weren't so much slapped for publishing as for dressing it up as real news. This was obviously clickbait as it was a promoted item. I was in no illusion as to what this was - Clickbait - I was just curious as to why cab drivers (taxi drivers to us kiwis) were in particular able to avoid speeding fines.

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Technofreak

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#1926766 29-Dec-2017 22:06

freitasm:

"The headline intrigued me..." and you fell for it.

Yes, you could say that. However I knew it was clickbait before I clicked as it was a promoted article.

What I was really getting at was if the publishers of these articles really want to achieve the outcomes they want, then they need to be a bit smarter. As it is now they think they're being cute or smart with the way they dish up these articles when in fact they're so dumb they shoot themselves in the foot with the way they word the content.

They attempt to make the item look local but slip up all along the way. Even the use of cab driver instead of taxi driver is just a subtle thing, I think most kiwis would say taxi driver.

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#1926776 29-Dec-2017 23:11

On a similar note, how does NZ Herald get away with these advertisements not being disclosed as such?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11965935

freitasm

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#1926794 30-Dec-2017 00:51

Because it is probably isn't advertising (as in a paid placement) but a press release that's been published - like we do here at Geekzone in the News section. The difference is maybe we try to not post things like this one that is clearly a attempt to direct people to a sale more than a newsworthy story.

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Dratsab

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#1926805 30-Dec-2017 06:21

Oblivian:

stuff/Press were doing the same. All the articles that looked like locally hosted news when you hovered over were surveys, quizzes or external clickbaiters at the bottom of articles. (2nd row nestled under real ones)

Recently cleaned up a bit, possibly coinciding with the slap on wrist. And now display PAID ARTICLES and the host, where it use to be totally transparent other than hover-over checks

It displays "paid content" as it's exactly that, not an article. Generally speaking, the only reason I look at Stuff is to do the daily trivia quiz. Can't be bothered with NZ Herald either.

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#1926833 30-Dec-2017 09:15

I gave up reading the NZ Herald when they switched to the new site design. It's now unusable on a mobile device due to the incredibly slow page load times.

Technofreak

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#1926861 30-Dec-2017 09:56

sbiddle:

I gave up reading the NZ Herald when they switched to the new site design. It's now unusable on a mobile device due to the incredibly slow page load times.

Plus the ads that fill the whole screen that you cannot close!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fixed all that yesterday with the latest version of Opera. Activated the Ad blocker, no more very intrusive NZ Herald ads and pages load quickly. Unfortunately this didn't improve the content.

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#1927570 1-Jan-2018 10:48

sbiddle:

I gave up reading the NZ Herald when they switched to the new site design. It's now unusable on a mobile device due to the incredibly slow page load times.

I gave up reading Stuff and NZ Herald the moment one experienced first hand that gap between what you say to a journalist and what was written then quickly pick up on stories where half of the most important information is left out in favour of swaying the reader in one direction or another, or the journalist is too lazy to do their job and actually background check the supposed expert witness they're interviewing on a given matter. Would I do a better job as a journalist? sure I would. Could I be a journalist? no, because I don't have nonsense degree in journalism and new outlets seem to be enamoured with the idea of employing people with that said nonsense degree.

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#1927575 1-Jan-2018 11:05

I've blocked ooyala, outbrain and taboola at the DNS level - that seems to have removed the clickbait from quite a number of sites, including nzherald and stuff. I've not heard anything from SWMBO - it's possible that she isn't aware of the blocking ...