That tears it...Financial Post magazine rips out story to mollify subject
According to a story in the Toronto Star, the current issue of the Financial Post magazine has one of its stories ripped out of each copy at the behest of the Manulife Financial Corporation and the subject of the story, Manulife's CEO Dominic D'Allesandro. The magazine has a per-issue circulation of more than 200,000 copies.
[Thanks to Steve Trumper for the heads up.]
The story – titled "Bang for the Buck. Dominic D'Alessandro's options and reputation at risk" – is listed in the index of the April 2009 edition. The D'Alessandro yarn was to appear on page 16. Trouble is, readers found only the ripped remnants of that page in the publication's stapled fold.Interestingly, the story would probably have been developed on the watch of Brian Banks, the recently departed editor of the magazine, but the acting editor, executive editor Cooper Langford, had to deal with the fallout. Neither he nor Douglas Kelly, editor-in-chief of National Post Magazines, would comment on the matter, according to the Star story; nor would any spokesperson for Manulife.
A source familiar with the situation said officials at Manulife complained to the Post after spotting an online version of the story prior to the magazine's distribution.
The story reportedly contained a "serious error" about Manulife and the Post volunteered to physically remove the page from every copy to appease the financial services giant. The error was egregious enough that a standard correction was not sufficient, the source said.
[Thanks to Steve Trumper for the heads up.]
posted by D. B. Scott at
3:49 pm
4 Comments:
It was barely noticeable. I'm sure they paid a legion of little old ladies minimum wage to tear out every page by hand.
But what was on the other side? An ad I presume. I see a big makegood coming.
I noticed and even went back to the contents page to see what was missing...I couldn't imagine I had the only copy with a page torn out, but also thought how odd/time-consuming/expensive it would be to rip a single page out of every magazine...
Cheaper than a lawsuit? Of course now I'm dying to know what it said...
so...what was the error?
According to an item by Patricia Best today (Thursday 16th) in the Globe and Mail, the disputed section (we'll probably never know whether it was an error or simply something the subject didn't like) was a single sentence:
What was the back story to the case of the missing article in this month's Financial Post Magazine? Copies of the April issue of the business glossy had page 16 ripped out - a highly unusual move in publishing. But the contents page lists a piece on Manulife Financial and its CEO, Dominic D'Alessandro.
Turns out someone at Manulife spotted a serious error in the online version of the article, which was posted before the print version was distributed, and eventually the insurance giant's lawyers were involved in getting the magazine's publisher, National Post, to remove the piece.
Calls by us to National Post editor-in-chief Doug Kelly were not returned. But information from other sources, including a copy of the story obtained from the Web when it was available, indicate the short article focused on the final six months of Mr. D'Alessandro's illustrious career as CEO. It was one line in the piece, containing a potentially damaging error regarding Manulife's finances, that caused the kerfuffle. Apparently, when Manulife pointed it out to Post officials, the paper immediately offered to physically remove the page. For a magazine - with advertising revenue to consider - a ripped-out page is better than no issue at all.
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