September 6th, 2001
Economic Woes Win Advertisers Front-Page Slots; Newspapers Give Ads Top Placement
By Mark Jurkowitz
Boston Globe
One week ago, the San Francisco Chronicle shattered a taboo by running an ad for the Franklin Mint on the page that carries its opinion columns. A note to readers by editorial page editor John Diaz spoke somberly of “the economic downturn” that forced advertising onto the paper’s once-hallowed editorial ground.
The Chronicle is not alone. During an economic rough patch that has led to significant erosion in advertising pages, the wall between newspapers’ editorial and business interests may not be crumbling. But it is shifting. Increasingly, ads are showing up in places - such as Page 1, the front pages of other daily sections, and the opinion pages - that have generally been off-limits for decades. And some are being sold at premium rates.
In a Boston Globe interview, Chronicle publisher John Oppedahl said the paper made last week’s decision only after losing “many millions of dollars and many thousands of [advertising] inches.”
“I’d rather not do it . . . I think no one wants to do it in the newsroom,” Oppedahl added. “But there are some realities we have to face.”
What is often referred to as “ad creep” seems to be dividing the industry itself.
Dallas Morning News editor and president Robert W. Mong Jr. - whose paper began accepting ads on the front pages of sections last year and expanded the programs this year - said the key was to introduce advertising “tastefully” and “carefully.”
“It’s important, in this kind of competitve environment, to look for new and different ways to sell advertising and to help support our news” operation, he said.
But Tim McGuire, editor and senior vice president of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, is a foe of such experiments. Even as Mong and others report that the public cares very little about ads appearing in once-forbidden places, McGuire cites an American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) survey indicating that a substantial portion of the public believes advertisers influence news decisions.
“I think we play into that perception with some of these moves. That’s what it’s all about for me - independence,” said McGuire, who, while ASNE president, said he spoke only for himself. What is undeniable, he added, is the proliferation of what “some would call innovative and others would call disturbing new ways to sell advertising.”
Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, said the encroachment of ads on editorial turf isn’t simply a matter of lax ethics in the news business. “There’s a context that puts a lot of pressure on people to do this,” he said. “How do you generate more profit with fewer eyeballs and probably less advertising?”
One of the more creative examples of wringing revenue out of limited space occurred this summer when an ad for “Jurassic Park III” featured a shadowy prehistoric creature that was superimposed over other ads or features in a number of newspapers, including The Boston Globe.
But most of the inroads are being made on front pages and section fronts. Since October 1999, USA Today has been taking ads on the bottom of page one. “For us, it was . . . how to satisfy advertiser demand.” with “nothing taken away from the reader,” said spokesman Steve Anderson.
Last year, USA Today owner, the Gannett Company, passed the word to its nearly 100 daily papers that “tasteful” front-page ads were OK. And according to Gannett spokeswoman Tara Connell, every daily in the chain has run front-page ads in the past 18 months.
In March, as part of major overhaul, The Orange County Register introduced a small coupon - offering for example, a free cup of coffee - on the bottom right-hand corner of the front page. Asked how the paper’s journalists responded to Page 1 advertising, communications director Nancy Souza said “It’s always a constant battle between the newsroom and advertising . . . I don’t want to say they [journalists] gave in. The newsroom decided it added value.”
When asked how much value those coupons meant to the newspaper, Souza said: “We have a huge waiting list. It costs a lot.”
Starting in January, The Arizona Republic began accepting daily ads at the bottom of Page 1. “I don’t think anybody was very happy about it, to tell you the truth,” said deputy editor Johhn D’Anna. But “we got very little reader backlash and the controversy sort of evaporated.”
Since May, The Denver Post and Denver Rocky Mountain News, which are editorially independent but have combined business functions, have been selling 13-week ad contracts on every section front except Page 1 and the Sunday commentary section. “We did this with the concurrence of both editors,” said spokesman Jim Nolan, pointing out that the opinion pages remain off-limits because “we didn’t want to create any impression of commercial interests affecting the opinion voices of the paper.”
Making calls about where and how to run ads in sensitive terrain is not a new issue, and last century it was commonplace for ads to run on Page 1. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution has accepted advertising on its opinion pages for years. The New York Times has run small classified ads (called “reader notes") on Page 1 for more than 100 years, has been publishing “advocacy ads” on its op-ed page since 1970, and has carved out ad space on the Sunday local news front since 1995.
Like some other newspaper chains, the New York Times Company grants the other papers it owns - including the Globe and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette - general autonomy for what spokesman Toby Usnik called the “criteria and placement on advertising.” Globe spokesman Rick Gulla says the paper does not have a policy against advocacy ads on the op-ed page, but “at the moment, we don’t feel there’s enough consistent demand to make it viable.”
Despite the ASNE study suggesting widespread concern about advertiser influence, one reason that “ad creep” may become an increasingly tempting option is that it has not tended to generate any real reader outcry.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect, frankly,” when The Dallas Morning News starting selling section front ads, said Mong, who closely monitored public reaction. There was none to speak of. Asked what he expected now that the Chronicle has started run opinion page ads, Oppedahl said simply: “I don’t think I’ll get a big reaction.”