'Times' Gives 'WSJ' Article Seal of Approval
Today's Times brings news of a classic brand's renovation:
Good Housekeeping, owned by the Hearst Corporation, is undergoing a broad-based effort to overhaul the image of its century-old brand. Its biggest selling point, Good Housekeeping says, is its years of accumulated trust, based on the lab and the seal, which, it says, set it apart from other magazines."The new institute allows us to be more visible as to what is behind that trust," said Patricia Haegele, Good Housekeeping's publisher. Among other things, the institute serves as the backdrop for television segments.
This will probably come as a total shock to you, unless, uh, you read about it in the Wall Street Journal five weeks ago:
The institute and its gleaming 20,000-square-foot headquarters on the 29th floor of Hearst's new midtown Manhattan building will be part of a push to tout Good Housekeeping's product testing, serving as the backdrop for the magazine's regular segments on ABC's "Good Morning America" and NBC's "Today." It will be the most visible sign of the magazine's efforts in recent years to emphasize its research — including expanding its work beyond issuing the seal of approval to qualified advertisers to rating products from linens to washing machines.
Now, we understand that "news" is "news," and just because the WSJ did a piece on what's arguably an important media story, that's not going to stop the Times from doing it. We well know how few stories are really out there, and how you eventually have to just grit your teeth and hammer something out. We're actually on the Times' side on this one: At least they didn't crib it from New York.
Polishing the Good Housekeeping Seal [NYT]
Good Housekeeping Touts Its Test Lab To Seek New Readers' Seal of Approval [WSJ]
New York Times' Story On Musical Youth Strikes An Awfully Familiar Chord [Idolator]