By Katherine Q. Seelye
The New York Times
Published: 4/17/06
Excerpt:
Last week, The Daily News in New York ran full-page ads in some
copies that were, in effect, the front page. On Wednesday, it ran front
and back full-page ads for Mazda and on Friday for Toyota, and there was no second, or "real," front page inside.
The
Daily News said that on [April 12], it printed about 40,000 newspapers
with the Mazda front page and distributed them free throughout New
York. The words "sponsored copy" appeared in tiny type at the top.
These
copies were printed in addition to The Daily News' full run of 688,600
papers, which carried the front-page news that the death of a police
officer had been linked to noxious air at the World Trade Center
cleanup site. A spokesman for The Daily News declined to say how much
Mazda or Toyota paid for the ads. Advertising experts suggested they
cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Newspapers have long sold
their back pages to advertisers. But the front page, a paper's most
valuable real estate, generally has been considered sacred. ...
"To give the whole front page away seems to me a dangerous message to
send to readers," said Kelly McBride, ethics group leader at the
Poynter Institute, a school for journalists. The front page is for the
news you consider most important to the community."
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Seelye's comment: "Newspapers have long sold their back pages to...
