Via the New York Times, not to mention through the looking glass:
The entire first page of The Los Angeles Times on Friday was an ad that looked, in part, like the front page of The Los Angeles Times, as the newspaper again tested the accepted limits on where ads can be published and how they can blur the boundary with news.
Here’s the offending Page Won, touting the cinematic release of Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland:”
This is business as usual for the LAT, which has also auctioned off its front page to the NBC drama “Southland” . . .
. . . and leased out Page One to the HBO series “True Blood” . . .
But this latest LA Times dalliance seems to be the worst:
The “Alice in Wonderland” ad, which also wraps around the paper, introduces a new wrinkle, lending the name and work of The Times to an advertiser.
For that reason, some Times journalists said they found it more troubling than the previous ads.
“Troubling,” at this point, is a vast understatement.
Every Friday the front page of our local newspaper, the Brattleboro Reformer, has a extra page on the front that folds over into an ad similar to the one on the front page of “LA Times.” It’s hard to explain but you just have to see it. It’s just as bad and annoying. “The Brattleboro Reformer” is owned by Dean Singleton of MediaNewsGroup… if that means anything.