Sibling rivalry

Each time the editorial calendar calls for coverage of the advertising industry, the same question pushes itself to my frontal lobe; it is not who, what, where, when, or even how that pains the mind but rather why journalists detest writing stories about advertising so instinctively and harbor such an intense dislike of the industry. It is a fundamental challenge. Whenever I access the finest international business publications I am dissatisfied with the quality of pieces on the advertising agencies, as if an undercurrent of derision runs invisibly through editorial departments.  The first barrier against a professional treatment of the industry may be the fact that our profession can never quite shed the notion of its unhappy dependency. Ever since the income stream and economic viability of print journals shifted to advertising over readership, writers have worked under the bane that their job security is but a function of advertising