Australian Newsagency Blog

The front page to today’s Australian Financial Review newspaper has been trashed by an ad for Westpac bank stuck over a news story. The post-it note type ad is a great ‘get’ for Westpac as it pulls visual focus, like any good ad should. Everyone looking at the the AFR in a newsagency today will see the Westpac ad first.

Besides the trash caused by people ripping the ad off once the buy the newspaper, I am frustrated with the damage to the newspaper medium. Selling ads to cover news content speaks volumes about publisher commitment to news.