The LA Times editors are in a tizzy about the prospect of advertising on their section fronts, according to a story in the paper today. Quote:
Times Editor Dean Baquet said he “expressed concern” about ads running on the front of the Calendar section. He said he feared that articles about movies would run adjacent to advertising for films, perhaps giving the appearance that coverage had been compromised. But Baquet said he was reassured that there would be ways to set the ads apart from the editorial content.
The publisher, whose memo was leaked to a local blog, said there are no plans for ads on the paper’s front page.
Have they looked at their website’s front page lately?
This is what’s missing from almost all of the discussions about the moves by many papers to put ads on section fronts — and in the case of the Wall Street Journal, on Page 1. The websites have been putting loud ads on all pages since they started.
The widespread angst expressed by editors is for a product that will someday be supplanted entirely by the Web operation. If they’re holding back a tide of some sort, just what is it?