Buy your way onto Page 1
Newspaper purists - a dying breed, indeed - will notice another step taken down a slippery slope in today's Salt Lake Tribune.
In the upper-right corner of Page 1, in the line of "teasers" (the insider term for headlines and pictures that promote stories inside the paper) is a small advertisement - 1-1/2 inches tall, 1-5/8 inches wide - for Macy's department stores. At a fast glance, it looks like just another teaser, but it's not. (An identical ad runs on the front page of today's Deseret News, but they put it "below the fold," in the lower right corner of the page.)
This is a first for the Tribune, and a fairly rare sight in American newspapers. It's more common in European papers.
The argument against front-page ads goes like this: The front page is sacrosanct - because if Macy's can buy their way onto Page 1, so can a political candidate or a corporation with a controversial project (say, for example, if EnergySolutions wanted to buy an ad to coincide with a legislative debate on nuclear-waste storage) - and anything that breaches the wall between news and advertising threatens the paper's credibility.
The argument for front-page agds goes like this: Ads in other parts of the paper - or on the main page of the web site - don't threaten the paper's credibility, so why should one on Page 1? Besides, newspapers need the money and shouldn't be so picky about how they get it.
What do you think, America?
In the upper-right corner of Page 1, in the line of "teasers" (the insider term for headlines and pictures that promote stories inside the paper) is a small advertisement - 1-1/2 inches tall, 1-5/8 inches wide - for Macy's department stores. At a fast glance, it looks like just another teaser, but it's not. (An identical ad runs on the front page of today's Deseret News, but they put it "below the fold," in the lower right corner of the page.)This is a first for the Tribune, and a fairly rare sight in American newspapers. It's more common in European papers.
The argument against front-page ads goes like this: The front page is sacrosanct - because if Macy's can buy their way onto Page 1, so can a political candidate or a corporation with a controversial project (say, for example, if EnergySolutions wanted to buy an ad to coincide with a legislative debate on nuclear-waste storage) - and anything that breaches the wall between news and advertising threatens the paper's credibility.
The argument for front-page agds goes like this: Ads in other parts of the paper - or on the main page of the web site - don't threaten the paper's credibility, so why should one on Page 1? Besides, newspapers need the money and shouldn't be so picky about how they get it.
What do you think, America?
posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:13 PM |
2 Comments:
The front page of a newspaper is no place for advertising. But I was outvoted by my own managing editor and advertising appears on the front page of the home town weekly I edit.
I think I'll let my subscription do the talking, er, walking.
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