Ads on the Front Page? Bring it On!

By: Joe Strupp Yet another newspaper announced today that it will make the big, bold move of placing ads on its section fronts. The Sun of Baltimore now says it will join The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Chicago Tribune, among others, in what some in the newspaper world consider to be a damaging move.

Those critics claim that increasing the use of ads on section fronts, especially on Page One, violates some unspoken ethic of journalism -- that placing ads in such spots lessens the paper's credibility.

I say the opposite: What took you so long? And why not do more?

Look around you, newspaper gatekeepers. The rest of the world is advertising-crazy. Why not join in? So what if some of the same types of ads make Web sites look like cluttered commercial carnivals, or give cable news shows all the ad-choked subtlety of the home run fence at a minor-league ballpark?

Heck, why not just stick ads square on the front page, above the paper's names or tied in with a headline. You could have "Bush (Baked Beans!) Declares Iraq War A Success" or "Dow Jones (Pork Sausage!) Up Twenty Points"

Look at every other type of news media, from television to radio, to Web sites to podcasts. Ads are all over the place. Most Web sites have "progressed" to the point where advertisements can even be personalized to greet you when you log on. I can't go to Amazon.com without being reminded of the last five books I bought, which similar titles are on sale, or even how Stephen King and I like the same brand of toothpaste.

Newspapers should do the same. After all, their Web sites are already chock-full of banner ads and related sponsorships; why not put them in print? I say run ads on every page, on top, at the bottom, along the side. Even incorporate them into the section names. You could have the Gatorade Sports Section, the Charles Schwab Business pages, and Paramount Pictures movie listings.

Don't laugh, folks. They are coming, and soon the idea of ads on the front of a section will be very normal. Besides, if all newspapers are moving to the Web anyway, section fronts won't even exist in 30 or 50 years -- except on Web pages, of course, where the ads already surround, interrupt, and, in some cases, pop out at you.

So what should it matter if the print paper, at least until it goes away completely, places its paid spots a little more noticeably? Why not have sponsored names on columnists? Maureen "Dunkin' Donuts" Dowd, Clarence "Planters Peanuts" Page, or even Robert "Epoxy" Novak (you know, because he's so good with leaks).

Let's be up front about newspaper-name sponsorships and be done with it. If sports can do it with the VISA Triple Crown and Fed Ex Orange Bowl -- not to mention a bank or airline name on nearly every baseball park and hockey rink in the country -- why not the daily miracle? Hey, there's an idea: The Miracle Whip Miami Herald. Or perhaps The Walgreen's Washington Post, The Nabisco New York Times, or The K-Mart Kansas City Star?

You just know some ad-sales rep at the New York Post is dying for a tie-in with Post Raisin Bran, or Post-It Notes, or even the local Post Office. Just think what The Blade of Toledo, Ohio, could do with Schick, Gillette or Ginsu knives. The possibilities are endless. I don't even want to think about what a paper like The Repository in Canton, Ohio, might dream up.

Oh, what? Newspapers should have a little more dignity than that? Running ads anywhere and everywhere in the paper might, somehow, lessen its value? I say, untrue! It hasn't stopped people from watching Fox Sports baseball games, where the network inserts ads on to the wall behind the batter's box, and it couldn't be more irritating than having to sit through commercials after paying $10 to see a movie.

But seriously, folks, if a small change like adding some ads to section fronts causes some to worry about how that will affect a newspaper's credibility, it is only because a newspaper still retains a good amount of integrity. A great many people still consider newspapers to be a cut above their online, broadcast, and cable TV competitors.

Increase the ads if you must -- but not at the price of credibility.