Los Angeles Times pimps out the front page to survive
ADOTAS — The LA Times has joined the ranks of desperate papers by running a front page ad that looks like a news story, although it’s clearly labeled an advertisement.(Screen caption here).
The ad was in NBC’s new drama Southland, had a thick, black border and the NBC logo and word “advertisement” above it.Apparently, the papers’ reporters are in an uproar because they believe it was an assault against the wall that is supposed to between paid advertising and news stories. One reporter (anonymously, of course) told Reuters that “This place already had horrible morale problems with decimating layoffs, but now to have our publisher whore out the front page is more than we can stand.”
According to a petition peddled by reporters, “The NBC ad may have provided some quick cash, but it has caused incalculable damage to this institution. This action violates a 128-year pact with our readers that the front page is reserved for the most meainingful stories of the day. Place a fake news article on A-1 makes a mockery of our integrity and journalistic standards.”
As Reuters notes, newspapers are pushing the boundaries between advertising and editorial content as they struggle to compete in the Internet age. Many used to run front page ads way back at the beginning of the 20th century, and some, like The Wall Street Journal, are trying it again. LAObserved also points out that this Sunday, there will be a wraparound advertisiment, looking like news stories, about the movie “The Soloist,” which was based on Steve Lopez’s columns about a talented, mentally unstable, homeless guy.
Are readers really fooled (apparently so). When I was at the New York Daily News, I saw a wraparound frontpage story on an author. Why because, he had a new book coming in, and there was certainly advertising attached to that. I understand the reporters outrage, but that horse has already left the barn.
*In a hilarious (sad?) side note. The UCLA student paper wrapped its paper in a fake ad wraparound. Guess Times was just copying the kids.
– Express your opinion, comment below.
Reader Comments.
Rather than pimping out the front page, the Los Angeles Times has recognized they need to change with the times and be as flexible and creative as they can to retain readers and advertisers. Websites do not ” maintain the integrity ” of their landing pages. They are covered with ads that sing and dance and call out to you like a street hawker on 42nd Street.
Kudos to the LA Times.
I understand the economic times, however loosing the integrity of news on the front page as opposed to fake news (ads) is a sad commentary on the short sitedness of the publisher. Please respect your readers as we have respected the paper for so many years.
I am on the sales side and I respect the journalists who recreate their brand everyday and make it possible for us to place sponsors in a great product.
But I never hear things like that from the journalists. Never. Instead of feeling like the publisher sold them out, how about “thanks for pulling out all the stops to keep us in jobs” in this near-death world we are living in.
The writers are living in the same fantasy land that has been the wonderful world of monopoly media for the past 40 years.
It’s over. Get used to it. Don’t like it? Go to a non-profit
The 5th Estate now upset?
Wow – the hardcore truth is takes money to pay writer salaries. Will this 100 year throwback work? They better hope so! It is time for desperate measures to try to save the print media…
Rod Cook
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