• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, January 8, 2009

The Boston Globe will begin accepting advertising on its front page, following the lead of its sister publication, The New York Times, which ran its first front-page ad ever on Monday. Globe executives said the decision was their own, reached independently of the Times. Both newspapers are struggling to staunch the outflow of ad revenue from their print products, as their owner, the New York Times Co., finds itself in increasingly desperate financial straits.

The Chicago Tribune is reversing course. The publisher has decided to pull many of the most prominent features of the redesign ordered last year by the Tribune Co.'s new management, led by Sam Zell. Coming about a month after the company was forced to declare bankruptcy, the highly visible retreat is another rebuff for Zell, a pugnacious real-estate mogul who promised to turn around the ailing company.

Among the reversals, the Chicago Tribune is scaling back the "loud" front-page photos and graphics that were a centerpiece of the makeover and restoring the business section as a separate, regular feature. It is also attempting to make navigation easier by keeping articles in a contiguous format (rather than sending readers on a multi-page chase through different sections).

However, the Tribune not budging on the increased share of advertising--a chief reader complaint. The higher proportion of advertising throughout the newspaper is part of a 50-50 ratio mandated by Zell's managers, under which none of the company's newspapers would contain less than 50% advertising.

To announce the about-face, the Tribune took the unusual step of wrapping the first section with a spadia--a partial page covering less than half the newspaper. In self-deprecating fashion, the newspaper listed some reader complaints about the new format--and the steps it was taking to address them.