The Daily Telegraph this morning came wrapped in a full-page advertisement for HSBC. Unlike previous wraparounds on the Daily Express and free papers such as Metro, this one does not obscure the front-page headlines: it is printed, presumably at significant extra expense, on heavyweight translucent paper.
The cover advertises a "Business Thinking" competition – described by the paper as a reader offer – in which 18 enterprises will share up to £90m of loans from the bank for overseas expansion.
In a vivid display of the increasing co-operation between editorial and commercial departments at the Telegraph, this contest is also a subject of the comment column by its head of business, Damian Reece – trailed, with his byline picture, above the masthead on the main front page. The contest is then written up, beneath another HSBC advert, on pages four and five of the paper's business pullout, which also trails it, with an HSBC logo, on its front.
HSBC has also taken a narrow advertising slot along the bottom of the main front page, aligning with the logo in its wraparound, and a quarter of the main paper's back page.
Here's what Damian Reece says about the decision to mention the offer in his column:
"My readers are either in business, owning or running companies, or are interested in business. The job of my editorial, be it online or in the Telegraph newspapers, is to provide news, analysis, data and comment but also opportunities for readers. My job in part is to help readers grow their businesses and I feel passionately about that. To get £90m of preferential funding with additional grants and practical management help and mentoring for my readers is a great reader opportunity and one I want to promote as much as I can. Will it affect our editorial independence? No, absolutely not. Will it help my readers? Yes and that's got to be good for them and the UK economy as a whole."
