The Republicans held their second presidential debate on Wednesday night. I’ll have more reaction from how that went in Friday’s newsletter, but I did want to mention this interesting nugget from Semafor’s Max Tani. He talked to a prospective ad buyer for the first debate in August and Wednesday night’s second debate.
In the first debate on Fox News, the cost of a 30-second commercial topped $495,000. But the same 30-second spot for the second debate on Wednesday night was just over $200,000. Wednesday’s debate was hosted by Fox Business, but also was aired on the main Fox News Channel.
Tani wrote, “Another ad buyer did not share the rates for ads running during the first debate, but confirmed that Fox was charging $225,000 for 30-second ads during the broadcast immediately after the event, and $125,000 for 30-second spots during the broadcast before it.”
So why the drop? First off, there was always going to be more interest in the first one, just to see how the candidates acted in a debate. There was less of an I-wonder-what-they’ll-say aspect to a second debate.
There’s also this: It feels like a race for second place in a contest in which Donald Trump has a big lead. And, when it comes to presidential nominations, second place is no place. You can’t help but quote the great Ricky Bobby: “If you ain’t first, you’re last.”
One ad buyer told Tani, “Sans Trump … these debates just aren’t big-time TV, because the GOP primary race has become a snoozer.”
To be fair, Tani wrote, “A source familiar with Fox News’ debate advertising plans acknowledged that there was a decline in ad rates between the first and second debate, but told Semafor that the prices were ‘not accurate in terms of what were actually sold.’”
Baron’s new book
Former Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron has a new book coming out Oct. 3: “Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post.”
The Atlantic ran an adapted excerpt, which includes how the Post came up with its slogan, “Democracy dies in darkness.”
Baron recounts how Post owner Jeff Bezos wanted a phrase that captured what the Post did and the ideas totaled at least 1,000. Some of them, according to Baron, included: “A bias for truth,” “Know,” “A right to know,” “You have a right to know,” “Unstoppable journalism,” “The power is yours,” “Power read,” “Relentless pursuit of the truth,” “The facts matter,” “It’s about America,” “Spotlight on democracy,” “Democracy matters,” “A light on the nation,” “Democracy lives in light,” “Democracy takes work. We’ll do our part,” “The news democracy needs” and “Toward a more perfect union.”
Some of the finalists included “A bright light for a free people”; “The story must be told”; “To challenge and inform”; “For a world that demands to know”; “For people who demand to know.”
Baron wrote that they finally came up with “A free people demand to know,” but that was rejected by Bezos’ then-wife, novelist MacKenzie Scott, who found the phrase too clunky, calling it a “Frankenslogan.” (Don’t you just love that word?)
Baron wrote: “By then, we needed Bezos to take unilateral action. Finally, he did. ‘Let’s go with Democracy dies in darkness,’ he decreed. It had been on our list from the start, and was a phrase Bezos had used previously in speaking of the Post’s mission; he himself had heard it from the Washington Post legend Bob Woodward. It was a twist on a phrase in a 2002 ruling by the federal-appellate-court judge Damon J. Keith, who wrote that ‘democracies die behind closed doors.’”
The adapted excerpt in The Atlantic also tells the story of a dinner Post leaders had a few months after Donald Trump became president. It’s a fascinating account, well written by Baron.
We’ll have more reactions when Baron’s book is out, but the adapted excerpt certainly teases what appears to be a fascinating and well-told account of some of Baron’s time at the Post.
Devastating news
