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Hannaford Pulls Ads From TV Station 2008-04-11

Hannaford Bros. is no longer buying advertising time on a television station whose news coverage of the recent security breach at Hannaford stores “lacked balance and fairness,” a company spokeswoman told SN.

Jon Springer, Executive Editor

April 11, 2008

1 Min Read
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JON SPRINGER

SCARBOROUGH, Maine — Hannaford Bros. is no longer buying advertising time on a television station whose news coverage of the recent security breach at Hannaford stores “lacked balance and fairness,” a company spokeswoman told SN. Carol Eleazer, vice president of marketing for Hannaford, said the retailer fulfilled its commitment to buy television ads on Portland’s WGME for the first quarter but opted not to buy advertising in the second quarter. At issue, she said, was that “much of the coverage and newscast promotion spots about the illegal data intrusion lacked fairness and balance and resulted in … a misrepresentation to its viewers and our customers.” She declined to cite specific examples of the coverage. The station in a statement said Hannaford had not pointed out any factual inaccuracies in its reporting on the data breach, which exposed 4.2 million credit and debit cards to fraudulent use. The breach was revealed last month.

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About the Author

Jon Springer

Executive Editor

Jon Springer is executive editor of Winsight Grocery Business with responsibility for leading its digital news team. Jon has more than 20 years of experience covering consumer business and retail in New York, including more than 14 years at the Retail/Financial desk at Supermarket News. His previous experience includes covering consumer markets for KPMG’s Insiders; the U.S. beverage industry for Beverage Spectrum; and he was a Senior Editor covering commercial real estate and retail for the International Council of Shopping Centers. Jon began his career as a sports reporter and features editor for the Cecil Whig, a daily newspaper in Elkton, Md. Jon is also the author of two books on baseball. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English-Journalism from the University of Delaware. He lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. with his family.

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