Is this an awesome page or a full page front page ad? I like it either way, but for entirely different reasons depending on what I define the page as.

It’s definitely not an awesome newspaper front page. It’s either a full-page ad or the very creative presentation of an opinion page depending on how you look at it. Maybe both.

It is very cool from a design point of view, but I think it also provides yet another data point in the increasingly obvious trend that shows newspapers dropping all pretense of objectivity and embracing out-and-out advocacy. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is a separate conversation entirely, I think.

News. Ad. Opinion. Whatever it is - I call it smart.

Does anyone remember a time when newspapers weren't over-the-top objective? Remember when there were two newspaper towns and political rivalries? I'm not saying that I do, but since people think we're biased either way why not make a statement? And since we're on the subject, anyone care to enlighten us Americans about the state of journalism and objectivity in the rest of the world? It always seemed to me that it was less an issue elsewhere. Could this be one reason the media seem to be thriving in places like London but not here? The whole sparking debate thing? It's late and I'm all hopped up on cold medicine so I could be nuts about this, though. Just some thoughts.

If there's anything we shouldn't be "objective" on, it's freedom of the press. I don't think journalists can be objective, anyway. You can present the facts, and you can try to be fair, but at the end of the day there may be a losing side to your story. Life, as our parents told us so many times, is not fair. We shouldn't trip over ourselves to create fairness where it isn't deserved.

I agree with Jonathan here, as well as wit those who said this was an enormously clever idea.

Yes, it was advocacy, and no, the front page isn't usually the place for that. But it sent a shocking, poigniant and apparently necessary message to readers not to ignore state censorship in a nearby land.

Not too long ago, the Poles knew very well what this meant, and the people of Belarus are suffering from it, too, apparently.

This was a strong message, sent well.

Unfortunately, today's U.S. media conglomerates don't have the balls to stand up for anything... except a higher profit margin.

The whole idea of "objectivity," if I remember right, came about with AP's birth -- the service had to be objective to supply dispatches to the newspapers of the day, which did indeed have defined points of view. Objectivity is a nice idea, but true objectivity is impossible, and readers/viewers/listeners see and know that. In such a diverse media environment, it is more and more impossible. Slowly, we're going back to that aforementioned environment -- more and smaller media outlets with defined points of view.

Have some coment from Poland. Both Newspapers : Gazeta Wyborcza and Rzeczpospolita created 'ad' first page as on the image. Below (as 3 page) was true lead page of newspapers. On 2'nd and last page were articles about true situation on Belarus which is becomeing more and more dramatic in fact (due to true totalitarism).

Thinking from a publisher's point of view, debates over objectivity or classifications cast aside, I'm wondering how *anyone* could walk past that newspaper in a rack and not at least stop and consider buying it. (And, after buying it, keeping it as a collector's item.)