In case you’re still spending energy getting around the Globe and Mail paywall, editor John Stackhouse gives you good reason to become a paying subscriber. You see, only people who cough up the $20 get his weekly “Editor’s Note” email.
An anonymous tipster forwarded the March 10 editor’s note to the Albatross and, hoo boy, it’s a doozie.
Stackhouse knows what his readers want, and his readers want to talk about sex. That’s right, the Globe editor has his sleeves rolled up, he’s sitting on a chair backwards and is ready to have a rap session about the birds and the bees.
According to Stackhouse, there is “more sex in The Globe and Mail lately,” which has understandably alarmed some of the Globe’s older readers. But this isn’t just titillation for the sake of page views — it’s news!
“Sex — low-brow and high — is a hot news topic and that won’t go away any time soon,” says dad-in-chief Stackhouse.
The low-brow sex stories this week were a piece about the “Duke porn star,” which is actually about a woman trying to own her identity despite harassment from misogynists, and one about oral sex. Yes, oral sex is low-brow now. Way to shame people for liking it “the French way.”
But lest you think the Globe is becoming too hip, Stackhouse admits changing the straightforward headline “My girlfriend won’t give oral sex. What can I do?” to the more timid “How do I get my partner to change things up in bed?”
The high-brow stories this week were about the laws affecting sex workers and whether legalization is the best way forward. Important stuff, no doubt, but “high-brow” seems a bit self-important, no?
Stackhouse concludes his email by promising to make sex as boring as possible for readers in the coming days.
“We will continue to foster debate in the weeks ahead, not to create digital sensations (though we’re not against that if the material is right) but to ensure Canada — and Globe readers — properly explore sexual issues from the street to the bedroom.”
This must be what it’s like to get the sex talk from a moldy blanket.
Full text:
Dear subscriber: You may have noticed more sex in the Globe and Mail lately. Some among our audience have pointed it out and wondered what’s happening.
Well, news is happening. Sex — low-brow and high — is a hot news topic and that won’t go away any time soon.
It’s also the focus of this Editor’s Note, my weekly take on the news.
First to the low. You may have heard about Belle Knox, the Duke University student turned porn star. Our Life reporter Zosia Bielski, whose writing focuses on relationships, interviewed the student and produced one of the most popular items on our site last week.
Our site got a bit spicier with an advice piece about oral sex and how a couple can come to terms with the fact that he wants it and she doesn’t. The piece and its headline got a lot of attention, and not for reasons we’d always want.
We see sex and personal relationships as important elements of our readers’ lives and intend to keep covering them. We also view sex as an important part of our social mores, which need to be discussed, debated and explored by The Globe. But we don’t need to do it with sensational headlines, which is why we changed the one about oral sex from “My girlfriend won’t give oral sex. What can I do?” to “How do I get my partner to change things up in bed?”
It’s a working rule I learned from The Guardian: Pursue low-brow news in a high-brow way, and high-brow news in a low-brow way.
For the high brow, we turn to the Supreme Court and its direction to the federal government to ensure the law protects the rights of sex workers. Our editorial last weekend pushed for proper legalization. We don’t want red -light districts; we do want sex workers to be respected under the law. Columnist Elizabeth Renzetti wrote another compelling piece arguing that sex work is work and needs to be treated equally under the law.
We will continue to foster debate in the weeks ahead, not to create digital sensations (though we’re not against that if the material is right) but to ensure Canada — and Globe readers — properly explore sexual issues from the street to the bedroom.
Have a great week,
John Stackhouse