That's Advertainment

In Denver, Sacramento, Atlanta and Cleveland, radio stations owned by the Gannett media conglomerate have adopted "advertainment" - a new programming format that consists of "hybrid shows, which mix entertainment with commercial content (in addition to regular commercial breaks)." In Minneapolis, Gannett affiliate KARE plans this spring to "revamp its chatty mid-morning talk show 'Today,' and put much of that happy talk up for sale," writes Deborah Caulfield Rybak. "Advertisers will pay $2,000 to $2,500 for 5-minute segments on the show. ... 'I am aghast,' said University of Minnesota media ethics professor Jane Kirtley, who at first thought a reporter was kidding about the new format. 'This is the logical extension of the whole pernicious practice of infomercials. If viewers are accustomed to getting [talk show] programming in a very different way, to suddenly change the rules on them isn't fair.'"