• Slate, Friday, September 8, 2006 11:45 AM

"So hidebound and dimwitted are U.S. newspapers that it's predictable that their idea of breaking all the rules is something U.S. newspapers were doing a century ago," writes Jack Shafer. In this case, that would be running ads on Page One and section fronts, as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal now do, while more are set to follow. But although the placement of ads on the front page hasn't corrupted USA Today, which has long had them, or the European press, some industry ethicists are concerned that they might give advertisers too much power over newspapers. Shafer wonders how ads on the front page are more potentially corrupting than ads on A16. And then, he notes, Thursday's WSJ shows that even if prime space can be bought, the paper can't. "It features an HP ad on the front page, and the lead story is about the ongoing HP boardroom scandal."

Read the whole story at Slate »