LAT: mixing editorial content with giant ads?

08 March 2010 |permalink | email article

Last Friday hundreds of thousands Los Angeles Times readers were startled to see on the entire first page an ad that looked, in part, like the entire front page of the newspaper. In fact, it was the latest attempt by management to blur the line between news and advertising while testing the limits on where ads can be published in an industry that is rapidly losing altitude.

A gaudy multicolored image of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, in the film “Alice in Wonderland,” occupies the major portion of the paper’s front page, superimposed over what normally looks like the usual serious front page. Above Depp is the “Los Angeles Times” banner, and flanking him, are sidebar recent articles.

The top editor at The Times, Russ Stanton, and many of his deputies strongly opposed the ad before it was published but reportedly were overruled by the paper’s top business management, none of whom would comment.

But John Conroy, a spokesman for The Times, said “Stretching the boundaries was what we were going for.” However unorthodox the cover ad may be for print, it mimics a common practice online of having an ad cover all or a part of a Web site’s home page for a few seconds, or longer. “It’s a concept that we normally apply to new media and reimagining it to a concept in a newspaper,” Conroy told The New York Times.

I think the flaw in his argument is that it is impossible for print readers without Internet access to remove the annoying distraction of a large ad appearing on a Web site without access to X delete button.

With steep ad declines in recent years, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal all have started publishing ads on the lower parts of their front pages. LAT’s problem now is whether it will effectively be able to make lucrative ad deals that will reach onlne subscribers, and for how many seconds.

Since the Tribune Co. agreed to acquire Times Mirror Co. 10 years ago this week in an $8 billion cash and stock deal the Los Angeles Times, long considered a serious national paper with a history of Pulitzer Prize winning reporters, continues to decline in circulation. This wrap-around stunt is an embarrassing affront to serious journalism. 

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