As part of its ongoing
relationship with media giant
Hearst, PMG is breaking a new campaign for its recently acquired
daily,
The Dallas Morning News, emphasizing community relevance and service, and featuring its renowned local journalists.
The campaign follows recent PMG work for Hearst Newspapers --
including The Houston Chronicle, as well as Car and Driver magazine -- but this one really hits home, literally.
Themed "This Is Home," the multimedia effort includes
out-of-home, TV and cross-media video executions that remind readers what a hometown paper is all about.
The fact that PMG itself grew up in the Dallas/Fort Worth community also hits home for
the agency, as well as supporting the vitality of the market's local journalism.
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"There's more to Dallas than the skyline," the paper's long-time city columnist Robert Wilonsky intones in
a voiceover in a new 30-second spot that brings the theme home. "It is a great skyline, though," he adds (see above).
"By us bringing our journalists forward, we're hoping
that we can not only help them understand why the journalism is relevant, but also to put faces to names, because trust is built through human beings," publisher and president Grant Moise tells
MediaPost, citing recent polls showing a decline in trust by many Americans in institutions in general, including the news media.
Moise says the campaign articulates what has been a "two-year" journey by the paper to
rebuild trust with its audience.
"The No. 1 piece has been about building a relationship," he explains, adding that "by putting our journalists forward in this campaign, we want them to know
that it is not just The Dallas Morning News, but it is journalists like Gromer Jeffers and Sarah Blaskovich and Robert Wilonksy."
Moise points to the branding commitment by new parent
Hearst Newspapers, noting it wasn't something its previously publicly traded entity DallasNews Corp. could support, proving that media consolidation occasionally helps grow -- not diminish -- local
media brands.
