Box of Rocks

BrooklynDodger feels there's an exception to the notion that any publicity is good publicity as long as the name is spelled right. Let's think this through: largest paper [the Dodger guesses] in the largest state for selling autos, where the US nameplate product is on the ropes, especially for non-trucks. Also, a paper that covers the auto industry on a national basis. Also, you have maybe 25% of the market, so it's not like you are going to blow a hole in their pages.

http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0504/10/autos-144684.htm

Saturday, April 9, 2005
GM pulls ads from Los Angeles Times over coverage
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- General Motors Corp. says it will stop advertising in the Los Angeles Times, at least temporarily, because of dealer concerns over "factual errors and misrepresentations" in the newspaper's articles and editorials.

The newspaper, which is owned by Tribune Co., will review coverage that prompted the complaints from the world's largest automaker, said Times spokesman David Garcia.
GM spokesman Brian Akre would not identify which stories or editorials the company objected to, but said it had been a series of reports over the past several months. "We made our objections known to the Times and we prefer to keep those private," he said Friday by telephone from Detroit.

He said the decision was made this week because of "strongly voiced objections from our dealers in Southern California regarding factual errors and misrepresentations in the Times editorial coverage."

"We recognize and support the news media's freedom to report and editorialize as they see fit," Akre said. "Likewise, GM and its retailers are free to spend our advertising dollars where we see fit."

The ban covers corporate advertising, not individual dealer ads in the classified section, he said. The company did not say the cancellation was permanent.