All the news that's fit to print -- plus an ad
01/05/09 11:09 AM
CBS lands inaugural page 1 ad in NYT.
By ED BARK
Sign of the apocalypse or just another sign of the times?
The New York Times and CBS partnered Monday (Jan. 5th) for the first front page display ad in the newspaper's 157-year history.
CBS, currently the No. 1 network in overall prime-time viewership, uses the two-and-a-half-inch, across-the-bottom-of-the-page space to laud its success story "at a time when there are more media choices than ever." Pictured are the network's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Two and a Half Men, The Mentalist, 60 Minutes and NFL telecasts.
"America's most watched network will clearly have one of the most read ads -- and we value this new means of prominently showcasing our valuable media properties," CBS Marketing Group president George Schweitzer said in a statement sent to TV critics.
The Times was a bit less jubilant in the lead paragraph of its story on the change in policy by reporter Richard Perez-Pena.
"In its latest concession to the worst revenue slide since the Depression, The New York Times has begun selling display advertising on its front page, a step that has become increasingly common across the newspaper industry," he wrote rather glumly.
All such ads will appear below the fold, says the Times, which won't say how much they cost. Consider it the cost of doing business in continuing troubled times for media companies of all stripes.
Still, a front page color ad in the Times? That seems a bit like monkey poop on a Rembrandt, but it beats turning the lights out in times when the Times' revenue from continuing operations fell 13.9 percent from November '07 to November '08, according to the newspaper.
Maybe they'll draw the line, though, on accepting an ad touting VH1's new January lineup of Sober House, Rock of Love Bus, Tool Academy (it has nothing to do with work benches) and Confessions of a Teen Idol. Guess we'll see.