While newspaper mastheads continue to be covered up in Australia with intrusive advertising, in the US there is fierce debate about the impact of advertisements being printed on the front page of The Washington Post. Yahoo News has the story including this paragraph:
Newspaper executives and editors pride themselves on maintaining a church/state wall between editorial and advertising and their traditional reluctance to sell front page ads stemmed largely from the sense that they appeared to broach that wall — sending the message to readers and advertisers that the front page, which editors have long viewed as their own sacrosanct turf, would essentially be up for sale. But harsh economic struggles have forced newspaper companies to get more creative when it comes to generating revenue. And with its inaugural front-page ad scheduled for next Sunday, the Post is showing that it’s no exception.
It is an interesting discussion – how a once venerable medium is having to prostitute itself beyond the hitherto unimaginable in order to make money.