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In a first, Oregonian publishes ad on A1

Oregonian A1 ad
The Oregonian's first A1 ad

The Oregonian has placed an ad on page A1 for the first time in its modern publication. Taking three column inches in the lower-right corner, the display ad promotes the Clam Cannery Hotel in Port Townsend, Washington. The words "paid advertisement" appear above the ad while a black border separates it from its surroundings.

A more prominent form of advertising, the spadea, has been wrapping front pages since last August. But while that format obscures half of the front page, then-Executive Editor Peter Bhatia pointed out upon its introduction that those ads have "no impact on the amount of news in the paper or the amount of space devoted to news."

American newspapers are increasingly placing paid ads on page one. Among the top five newspapers by circulation, only the Washington Post abstains from A1 advertising. The New York Times began the practice last year.

Amid a nationwide advertising recession and after repeated buyout offers, The Oregonian recently warned of its first newsroom layoffs. New publisher Chris Anderson recently said that the paper is "adjusting our expenses to match up with our revenue."

Comments

I can't imagine anyone

I can't imagine anyone thinking this somehow diminishes the integrity of The Oregonian. If it keeps them in business, more power to them. If you don't want ads mixed with your news, watch TV, right?

Your rating: None

Page 1 Ad

Having a page-one advertisement is nothing new in some foreign countries. You can find page one ad, sometimes a full page ad with the mast of the newspaper intact, in newspapers in Hong Kong, a city of 7 millions with at least 8 different newspapers in circulation in any one day. The ads have nothing to do with the newspaper's journalistic integrity and are a revenue to keep the newspapers in circulation. It is just the the American newspapers are so behind time to embrace the trend, and to "maintain" the integrity when there is none left.

Your rating: None

News or ads: which is more important?

Even if integrity had nothing to do with it, when an ad covers up half of the front page or subtracts from front-page news space, it communicates to readers a diminished value of the news content that is harmful to the brand.

Your rating: None

3:27 pm "Anonymous" - do you

3:27 pm "Anonymous" - do you know of this "diminished value" from factual, objective evidence or is this conjecture on your part?

Your rating: None

Factual

Value is subjective, so your question seems designed to expect the impossible of me and fault me for not achieving it. But factually, if an ad has equal placement with news, as it does with a spadea, or if an ad entirely replaces the news, as it does in the comment I was replying to, then the newspaper is communicating no greater value to the news than to the advertising, which is what I said.

Your rating: None

Actually, that's not what you

Actually, that's not what you said. You said the news value would be diminished - nothing was said insofar as comparing advertising value to news value. So - your statement is not backed up with any research?

Your rating: None

Get over it.

"when an ad covers up half of the front page or subtracts from front-page news space, it communicates to readers a diminished value of the news content that is harmful to the brand."

See the word "communicates?" Placing advertising equally with news "communicates" that one has no higher value than the other. Unless you believe this was already the value that newspapers were communicating about their news, that is "communicating a diminished value." There's nothing to study about that. It's not what readers perceive to be the value or what the value of a widget is in a marketplace, it's what equal placement communicates: equal value.

Your rating: None

Death spiral

Newspapers, and the Oregonian in particular, are in a death spiral. The print copy of the paper is dying. Long live the Internet.

Your rating: None

Death Spiral?

To 728pm Xray... And where does most of the original news on the internet come from?

Also to 3:27pm News or Ads anonymous: Lets stop kidding ourselves.. It's too late to worry about ads on the front page...or "The News Presented by -----", If the bucks are needed I say sell the whole half page below the fold if necessary.

Your rating: None

Really?

You'd think they could have chosen a more dignified ad to start with. Like a tasteful Target design. Or Comcast's Xfinity launch. But, no, it's the lover's special at the Clam Cannery. Really.

Your rating: None

Front page "integrity"

Go to http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/

Choose some dots on the map at random. You'll soon see how pervasive this page pollution is, and if these other markets cared you'd have heard the hue and cry in the trade before now.

Your rating: None

There's been plenty of hue and cry.

But the need for cash continues regardless, so what once was an abomination is now business as usual.

http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4342

Your rating: None

Everybody's doin' the Clam!

Couldn't resist.

Your rating: None

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