New York Observer Bribes Readers
It's not unheard of for questionnaires to be accompanied by a dollar bill, to encourage recipients at least to open the envelope, and guilt some of them into replying. But the New York Observer is more desperate than that: the weekly newspaper, supposedly for Manhattan's elite, encloses a $5 note in its latest reader survey. (Thanks, Matt, for the pic.) The generous interpretation: the Observer's ad rates depend on proving to advertisers that the curiously pink newspaper's readers are indeed worth $1.7m apiece; and such wealthy readers need commensurately rich inducement to open an envelope. Alternatively, boy-publisher Jared Kushner, who is trying to sustain the Observer's paltry paid circulation of some 50,000, is simply applying the family's experience with bribery. Hey, it works. Kushner won his place at Harvard University after his father pledged $2.5m to the school. ENLARGE»