Manulife latest to find failings at the National Pest

This is not a new theme around these parts, but times remain tough for the few journos and editors who continue to ply their trade at the National Post Pest (see prior post “Give David George-Cosh a break, he’s trapped at the bloody Pest!” February 11-09). For Manulife (MFC:TSX) management, they can only laugh at the thought of the newspaper’s editors having to sit on the floor of a printing plant and cut pages from 207,000 different magazines. Hats off to the Toronto Star for the scoop:

Rita Trichur
BUSINESS REPORTER

Call it the case of the disappearing story.

Readers of the Financial Post Magazine were left scratching their heads yesterday after they discovered that a story about Dominic D’Alessandro, chief executive of Manulife Financial Corp., had been mysteriously torn out of the publication.

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.

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.

According to the latest information from Canadian Advertising Rates and Data, the Financial Post Magazine has an average total circulation of 207,143. The magazine is published 11 times a year and is included with subscriptions to the National Post newspaper.

Neither the magazine’s executive editor Cooper Langford nor Douglas Kelly, editor-in-chief of National Post Magazines, returned telephone calls seeking comment. A spokesperson at Manulife declined to comment on the matter.

The incident, however, comes on the heels of another dust-up between the Post and Manulife.

On March 7, the paper ran a lengthy story about Manulife and the Canadian life insurance industry.

That story – called “Insurers Plummet to Earth” – prompted a terse letter to the editor from Gail Cook-Bennett, chair of Manulife’s board, just days later.

MRM