• by Wayne Friedman , April 9, 2009

Further melding real life with TV life, NBC is promoting a new fictional Los Angeles-based cop show, "Southland," with a seemingly real story on the front page of Thursday's Los Angeles Times.

Below the fold on the front page, a story is featured on the fictional cop, Ben Sherman, and his first day on the job. Sherman's character is a main focus of the new NBC's "Southland" show.

NBC says it is taking care not to deceive readers; the story is in different style than the paper's normal content. It appears in a smaller typeface, and is also marked as an advertisement.

But NBC is using only the paper's traditional analog space for its "Southland" promotion. The fake news story/advertisement didn't extend to the LA Times Web site. NBC credits the paper in coming to them with the promotion.

NBC anticipates the Los Angeles Times deal might be controversial with readers -- but adds that it hasn't crossed any editorial lines. Over the years, critics have complained about the incursion of advertising into editorial spaces. The Los Angeles Times has had a rash of problems with advertising/editorial deals. Recently, CBS took out the first-ever front-page advertisement in The New York Times. Similar to the LA Times deal, the ad is a horizontal strip at the bottom of the front page. It touted CBS promoting prime time shows, NFL broadcasts and newsmagazine 60 Minutes.

Struggling newspapers say they are turning to many alternatives as they try to stay afloat in the face of steeply declining advertising revenue.