...The Sun-Herald reaches over 1.3 million readers every Sunday.
Just over a third of them in the AB demographic [still using the old terminolgy] 468,000. Every Sunday The Sun-Herald advertisers reach 127,000 more AB readers than The Sunday Telegraph. Research shows that the AB demographic is more likley to spend money on goods and services.
Source: Roy Morgan Dec 06

Sun Herald - Roy Morgan Boast

We weren't really expecting much being novices, time and money constraints re ad size and quality. Anyways it was a breeze dealing with The Telegraph - we made a graphic of what we wanted - simple, a seach page effect, just google the keywords - their graphic artists made up a PDF file of it, everything was set within a short time - our ad duly appeared in a pretty good spot - top left hand corner.



Tara's ad in The Sunday Telegraph 1st April '07
Sure, there's nothing fancy about the ad design. But it cost nothing. Peter was not in a position to find and pay a professional graphic artist $1000. It was basically a novice situation, grab Graeme's $300 offer.
But even if Dad had the money, may be he still would have ended up with not much better - see the SMH graphic artists effort below.

The Sydney Morning Herald / Sun Herald Bones Little Children
We then approached The Sydney Morning Herald / Sun Herald to see if they were offering anything like the fantastic Sunday Telegraph opportunity. Started with the SMH website - very non-netizen / non-Sydney-Sider / non-plebeian - friendly (remembering we didn't have to lift a mouse finger with The Sunday Telegraph - their organization is set up such that they came looking for us). So 4 year old Tara, with father in tow, went off to the SMH headquarters at 201 Sussex Street Sydney, in person.

Started with 2 women at reception. Explained what we had going with the Sunday Telegraph - they didn't know anything about any Holiday Guides. Again immediately got impression of non-plebeian friendly - plebs only do classifieds - SMH deals only with big ad agencies...
So Peter says to them "OK I'll just call the general ad boooking number he found on the website: 9282 2277". They said no, you don't have to do that we are phoning around and someone will come down (literally) and talk to you.

Then got a meeting with "Emma Knox, Account Manager - Education". A repeat of the conversation with reception - she didn't know anything about a holiday guide either and was holding a big A3 sized layout of classified categories. She talked about an alternative 'buy 6 ads over an extended period package'.

Tara with Dad in tow 16iii07
Left her with the print of the Sunday Telegraph pdf file. We left it that she and/or others at SMH could check the webpage see what we were trying to do an get back to us. Presumably ASAP as we both agreed any deadline for the 1st April Sun Herald edition would be getting close.
Emma Knox promised much. Considering her job title, she delivered very little.

[She attaches a pdf file for their Guide:]

Sun Herald - Roy Morgan Boast

==

[Reply email to Sophia from Peter Saturday morning 24 March '07]

Hi Sophia
Thanks for your email. Thought my request through Emma Knox had been lost.

As I explained to Emma at our 16 March meeting I wanted to know if SMH has anything going like Graeme Whyte Sunday Telegraph offer of $300 for 2col x 5cm. Noting he found us first making everything a lot easier.

"Tara Childrens Filmmaking Playgroup" is explained with out pdf ad at :
http://www.kxol.com.au/tara/tara_filmmaking.htm
http://www.kxol.com.au/tara/tara_filmmaking.pdf

I see from your attachment "School Holiday Guide Easter Edition" that we have just missed the 23/3 deadline. Under the circumstances, if there is some way we can still go ahead and book space for our ad - hopefully it won't be much more than the Sunday Telegraph offer - would like to do that.

I'll try to call you and the booking number.

Tara is 4 years old - whatever happens can you send her out something to nurture career-girl memes, ideally a formal letter.

Cheers,
Pete & Tara

==
[
Peter phoned Sophia 9:01am Monday morning - she accepted booking and had received Peter's email.
Indeed website logs show that SMH visits the Playgroup's webpage Monday morning - here is extract from logs:
finance.fairfax.com.au - - [25/Mar/2007:16:46:09 -0600] "GET /tara/tara_filmmaking.htm HTTP/1.1" 200 26277 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)"
So Sophia / SMH knows what's on the webpage and does not flag any problems.
During call Peter asks about ad positioning in the Sun Herald "School Holiday Guide" Section. Sophia indicates can't be choosy because late with making booking - Peter does not raise that in fact went in personally to SMH 201 Sussex Street headquarters on 16 March to make booking - figure at this stage to just get ad in.
]

==

[
Sophia phoned Peter 5:15pm Thursday evening 29 March - SMH wants 180 dpi graphic of Tara or can't process - for some reason can't use PDF Telegraph is using.
Indeed, when the actual ad with the low resolution graphic of Tara's face appears in The Sunday Telegraph it's fine, especially given the plebeian equipment Peter is using at home, and it's basically a novice, grab Graeme's offer situation.
Sophia also mentions going to the webpage (again) - still no problems with webpage content.
Also Sophia tries to get Peter to "size up" - to a bigger ad - "What's your budget?" - Peter declines - they may have to change shape - effectively go from a small square-shaped box to a long skinny rectangle - which will mean losing the look of the "Google Search Webpage" because the critical search keywords words "Tara Childrens Filmmaking Playgroup" will not fit on one line. Peter has to accept, there's no more time, the deadline is tonight.
(At the close of the conversation Sophia promises to oblige the request to send out something career stimulating for Tara - must be lost in the mail.)
Peter emails back:
]

To: Sophia.Fitzgerald@fairfax.com.au, addesign@fairfax.com.au

In response to your request this afternoon have attached some extra files to try. If none are acceptable leave out the photo and just use the text.

tara2.bmp 230454 Kb
tara.jpg 49976 Kb

The Sunday Telegraph actually made this pdf so have no problems with it
http://www.kxol.com.au/tara/tara_filmmaking.pdf

Peter Hogan
==
[
Then at 7:00 pm Thursday night get call from SMH Ad Designs - they still can't use Tara graphic now agree to substitue a film reel graphic.
7:30 pm download a really poor PDF made by SMH Ad Designs of the layout they have come up with (will these people ever get a job after SMH goes down the tubes!).
SMH AD Designs 29 March '07 email:
]


Please note that we could not place 'Google' due to copyright in your advert.

APPROVAL REQUIRED

Proof for Kids School Holiday Guide attached for your perusal.

To view your proof of actual size, scale down to 100%.

Please check your attached pdf carefully & advise any alterations by 8.30am Fri 30/3/07.

Please note, pictures & logos will be low quality for proof only, however will be sent high res for printing purposes.

Please reply by email for any changes or to approve your ad to print, maximum of 1 (one) proof, deadline permitting.

Kind Regards,

Copy Unit
Fairfax AdDesigns Creative Dept
Level 2, 33 Moore St, Liverpool NSW 2170
Locked Bag 7010, Liverpool BC 1871

All phone enquires 8777 6956
or email advertising material to addesigns@fairfax.com.au
====


SMH Ad Designs Talent
[ Peter emails back corrections and preferences: ]

To: addesigns@fairfax.com.au

Note:
1. Delete "Search" from boxed area
2. Tara' should be just Tara - i.e. no apostrophe
3. Filmaking spelling error - should be Filmmaking with 2-m's (no hyphen).

My preferred layout, with some additional text is below.
There shouldn't be any further text checks needed if you just copy and paste this text.

Have attached a jpg file of how I want it to look.
tara_filmmaking2.jpg 33670 Kb
All the graphics have been put up here:
http://www.kxol.com.au/addesign.htm


[NB all text position centred]

--------------
Become a
founding
member of:

[Boxed:]
Tara
Childrens
Filmmaking
Playgroup

[search icon]

Search us
Now!

[ film reel graphic ]
_________
Tara Hogan
co-founder
(4 y.o)
---------------


Anyways, when the dust settles I would greatly appreciate someone explaining to me why we can't use the same pdf file the Sunday Telegraph is using, even though it was made from my low resolution graphic, see:
http://www.kxol.com.au/tara/tara_filmmaking.pdf

Regards
Peter Hogan

==
[Email from Sophia confirming booking, also on Thursday 29 March (4:54pm)]

Hi Pete,

Have been able to find a nice spot for your ad as a 10cm x 1 column ad.

Our Design Dept. are going to work on an ad with Taras pic and some text.

They will contact you tomorrow morning to approve the ad.

For your reference your ad number is #73723.

Thanks,
Sophia

==
[ Then comes the email from Sophia Fitzgerald, Account Executive, Sydney Morning Herald: ]

from Sophia Fitzgerald Sophia.Fitzgerald@fairfax.com.au
to Peter Hogan kxol.pete@gmail.com
date Mar 30, 2007 9:26 AM
subject RE: Your request - Tara Hogan Holiday Guide
mailed-by fairfax.com.au

Hi Peter,

I have been advised that we can't accept your ad as the advertising is for businesses and we don't accept political advertising.

Kind Regards,
Sophia


Sophia Fitzgerald

Account Executive


So there it is. The callous method used by the Sydney Morning Herald to bone a
4 year old girl. Supposedly there was an executive above Ms Fitzgerald doing the 'advising'. That Herald executive didn't have the good old fashioned Australian guts to sign with their own name. (Wouldn't be surprised in the Internet age if the name and reputation of that executive is appropriately dealt with in the ineluctable shame karma.) The Herald didn't even offer Tara an alternative position in another section of the newspaper. Remembering they were taking ads in the lead up to the State Election and the Federal Election is in full swing. Lots of advertisers give website addresses, does the Herald check every one of them to make sure they are in no way 'political'. Apart from websites, you can see an ad in the newspaper, drive to the shopfront, and see a political poster in the shop window, not to mention what may go on inside the shop.
We didn't do the usual trick of putting up a phone number and then con people over the phone. On the contrary, if by some strange chance anyone was interested, right from the start we encouraged people to first have a quick look for themselves.
And how many big advertising agencies are run by actively 'political' people - your John Singleton types.
The hypocriscy, talk about the kettle calling the pot black. The Herald is a political newspaper, to the core.
Also, at no point was there any mention, verbal or in print, of any terms and conditions.


Clearly the Herald boned a 4 year old girl so they could get more money from a big ad agency, and they did not want to go up against The Telegraph in a 'one on one' situation, especially after butchering our ad, and if it had gone in it would have been at the bottom of the last page. And with the ongoing frustration with the Herald, Peter had been making it very clear that this was indeed an opportunity to objectively compare the 2 papers.

SMH graphic artists


The Telegraph graphic artists kept life simple,
and gave the customer what they wanted.
Which newspaper has the best Graphic Design service?

Just recently on ABC radio they were talking about the yearly USA Today / Gallup Poll: The Most Honest and Ethical Professions. Essentially it ranks the morality of professions by the public. Nurses came out on top. Newspaper people were ranked well down with advertising people. Sure, most newspaper people are fair dinkum Australians like the rest of us, it's just the bad apples like at the Herald that can give a whole profession a bad name.

In conclusion, you may have detected hints of bias amongst some of the objectivity presented above, thus voiding the legitimacy of the award. What can the writer say, SMH did boned his daughter. Tara had told everyone, the whole clan, both sides of the family, all over Australia - she was going to be in both Sydney Sunday Papers - 'Hogans' in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, El Arish; 'Murrays' all over NSW (William Chisholm Murray b.'1864 Singleton, a classic profligate); 'Mitchells' in Canberra and Yass, Lawrences in Melbourne and Bega; 'Hardys' in Aberdeen and Hobart - but it's not that bad, they thought she was joking, no 4 year old in our clan could do all that, we're too stupid...

Anyone looking at this case - Little Tara Hogan v The Grumpy N.E. Sydney Morning Herald - can come to the same conclusion that Peter did well before the whole saga began. You don't have to be rocket scientist to figure out what was going to happen with the placement of this type of ad in this situation. Peter knew it was going to be a cheap, small low quality ad, tucked away among many bigger high quality ads, in one of the many sections of the Sunday paper. And that other advertisers would have the added benefit of brand recognition and being well established. Thus as much as the Aussie Battler hopes for a big chunk of serendipity, it was never expected that the reader would, dismiss all their ads, instead choose Tara's ad, go on the Internet, google her playgroup's webpage, be wrapped in having to do all the work of founder up against all the established organizations (your NIDAs, ATYPs, etc, who are themselves reliant on the usual political shennigans to get government funding), and take another half hour to click other links on her webpage because they love non mainstream political issues, to boot.

The proof is that that's exactly the way it played out. No interest, not even from close family! And if you consult a seasoned expert, it's highly doubtful whether others did much better - with the large number of advertisers on the same page, let alone the rest of the section and newspaper, and the fact that in early April most parents are not looking much past their booked holiday and the Easter Show.

Peter was paying $300 to give his daughter a thrill - her name and picture in the newspaper, and give her encouragement. He made it perfectly clear to Tara that we wouldn't get any interest in our little ad, but the lesson was that it was an experience and we were having a go against the odds.

If you believe the Herald's excuse thousands of Sydney-siders were going to be corrupted, who otherwise would not be aware of 'politics' in '07 in that they would have been just an extra click away from 'politics', in this case finding out things like what a Billjim is.

The simple definition of breaking a moral code is whether or not anyone gets harmed. Is Peter a bad father and a bad citizen of Australia - did he harm his daughter and our society? (But then aren't we all looking after our own interests - evolutionary selfish altruism) What about the Sydney Morning Herald, their manners, the way they interact with Sydney-siders generally, and specifically in this case, a 4 year old girl, pulling the ad at the last minute, giving no other alternative...?

Anyways, if this little piece from one of the plebs gets out even a little bit (as in on the offending website), you watch the Sydney Morning Herald do their thing and demonize the victim. No way will they admit guilt. They don't have to, a pleb can't sue them.

If we did have a fair dinkum 'justice' (as in no party has an advantage if they have more money for lawyers) system in Australia, Tara could indeed sue the Sydney Morning Herald , or at least take one of the law firms in the Yellow Pages up on their full page Free First Consultation / No Win No Fee advertising. (Actually, we've tried them, 9 to be exact. All lies. They actually only do the easy ones, and only if the client has plenty of money, just in case they lose and have to invoke the small print.) In any event, the Sydney Morning Herald have got lots of money for classy immoral lawyers to do even more demonizing, especially when the victim can't afford any lawyer at all. And of course the NSW Fair Trading Office is a joke.

Wouldn't it be amazing if some fair dinkum Australians in the media, like the editor of The Daily Telegraph, a Sydney TV channel, Today Tonight, A Current Affair, Channel 10 News, got wind of this travesty of justice, and could give us a hand in shaming the Herald and forcing them to lift their morality rating and start treating all Sydney-siders with some decency, as people with feelings, not a demographic.

If can't get any help there, especially with the Telgraph, then just might have to fall back on a rather special connection Tara has, and with relatives living in Berwick, right near Cruden Farm, heck, drop in on everyone. She just might give her son a ring.
Tara and Dame Elisabeth Murdoch
Whatever plays out, guess us dumb plebs will just have to shame the Herald as best we can. Maybe some other Australians have also had a gut full of this kind of behaviour and the time is right to get the reader to just click on... Whoops there we go again - making the mistake of mixing newspapers, politics and role models for our children.