Squeezing a buck

Reader Mark sends along an article on how the LA Times will try to make a buck in the age of declining newspapers.

The Los Angeles Times has lent some credibility to the phrase that you can't believe everything you read in the newspaper — even if it's on Page One.

The newspaper took the unusual step Thursday of running a front-page advertisement that resembles a news story.

The ad for the new NBC program "Southland" covers half the height of an entire column and appears on the lower half of the page, below the fold. It's labeled as an advertisement at the top but occupies space previously reserved for news. The text is adjacent to a graphical display ad for the show at the bottom of the page.

University of Southern California journalism professor Bryce Nelson said it seemed to be the first time in recent history that an ad resembling a news story appeared on the front page of a major U.S. newspaper — something once common in 19th-century newspapers.

As Reader Mark says. They'll do anything to make a buck short of putting out a quality product.