Back in May ’06 I had a go at the Sunday Tribune for their advertising campaign which focused on the worn-out joke that is Ross O’Carroll-Kelly instead of their editorial credentials.
Well, eight months down the line and it looks like they’ve changed tact, with their latest campaign focusing on Justine McCarthy, who made a move to them quite recently.
The advert gives me an unsettling feeling that they plan on making her a media personality rather than letting her do what she does best, but fingers crossed that isn’t the case – and even if it is I suppose the fact that they’re focusing on a human rather than a cartoon is a step up all the same.
No matter what I see it as a good thing that the paper wants us to know about its news (or comment…) pages.
Aside from this new advertising angle, it seems as though the editorial department has been/is hiring at the moment too, and Mulley’s recently acquired slot is more proof that they’re pulling back from the lifestyle side of things and deciding to provide information instead.
There have been plenty of rumours about the newspaper’s demise, but then again these rumours have floated around for a long while. Only time will tell if the axe is about to fall, but all signs suggest that O’Reilly hasn’t abandoned ship just yet.
Maybe Richard can tell us if the mood (and amount of money) has changed inside Tribune HQ, or if this is just the manifestation of something that was already there?