Blogger: Advertising wraps The Oregonian's front page

(Copy of newspaper courtesy of the Oregon Catalyst)

You cannot miss this: Advertising wraps The Oregonian's front page

The groundbreaking ad placement in the Sunday newspaper even merited an editor's column, complete with a mandatory mention of hard times.

Oregon Media Central sends us to The Oregonian's executive editor Peter Bhatia Editors' Blog for an explanation about the Advance Publication's first front-page spadea ad, which is an ad that folds around the spine of a newspaper.

Bhatia says such ads "will become more regular" on the front page, after having long been featured on comics pages. .

Oregon Media Central pulled the graphic here as a sample illustration from the Advertiser Resources section of The Oregonian's website, which describes the ads as "printed on both sides, covering half of a section's front page and all of the back," combining "impossible-to-miss, front-page positioning with full-page merchandising."


In his column, Bhatia says this type of ad is "becoming more common in newspapers," and that "ads like these pay for the news staff." he is careful to explain that such ads don't take away from the newshole.

I first wrote "Coming to a newspaper near you, I am sure." But then I thought I'd spotcheck some other Newhouse newspaper sites to see if that advertising product was available. The June 2009 Flint Journal ratebook lists rates only for a comic spadea. The Jackson Citizen Patriot's online ratecard does not list any spadeas. I couldn't get the Grand Rapids Press advertising products page to open. I. couldn't find advertising rates for the Muskegon Chronicle. Over on the east code, I don't think The Syracuse Post Standard or Star-Ledger offer spadeas. I can say without a doubt that the average small business owner wanting to place an ad in a print newspaper via an Advance Publications web page would need a lot of determination and time to figure out how to do it. That's a shame.