“I hope the LA Times was well compensated for this,” Nieman Lab director Joshua Benton tweeted about the Los Angeles Times’ front page ad Wednesday.
- Image courtesy the Newseum
The paper has “had a number of innovative campaigns on A1,” L.A. Times spokesperson Nancy Sullivan told Poynter in an email.
In 2009, the NBC show “Southland” took out an ad that looked like an article on the front. In 2010, it ran a wrap-around ad with a large image of Johnny Depp “superimposed over what looks like the usual, sober front page,” as Richard Pérez-Peña wrote.
Many newspapers now run ads on their front pages, a trend the American Journalism Review called a “Fading Taboo” back in 2007. But, yes, this one pushes the form somewhat. And, yes, in case you’re wondering, newspaper-design expert Charles Apple has seen it.
Note to everybody: Yeah, I see the big ad on the front of today’s LAT.
— Charles Apple (@charlesapple) November 27, 2013
