The Rocky Mountain News wrapped an ad shaped as goal posts around it's page 2 content for a special AFC Championship Package (over 20 pages/broadsheet weekend edition). If I'm correct, the ad was for John Elway Motors...

Kansas should of filled that spot with a house ad, at the least, it would of looked better...

Not to mention that the ad runs over the folio, too -- this page screams "Ads are more important than giving you the news!"

Augh. That's an offensively loud ad.

aren’t they more important? newspapers were created for advertising purposes...

Consider it a symbiotic relationship. No one would buy newspapers if they were just full of advertisements, but newspapers without ads wouldn't be profitable.

I as big a proponant of making money as the next starving journalist, but the ONLY way I allow this is if the ad is completely separated from the ed content. Like above the folio across 6 col. Even then . . .

I disagree. You can tell that's an ad from space. Maybe if it was in some way insidiously woven into the copy. But c'mon. I think the average, advertising-bombarded reader will have no problem with this.

I hope the paper got $5 million for that ad.

with all due respect, this is business.

as newspaper employees, we have to support new ad formats, like “billboards”, “pizza slides”, “islands”, ”triangles”, etc... as newspaper designers we have to find the way to separate them from the editorial content and still be attractive.

Like Josh said, you can tell that's an ad from space. Good job!

I didn't just fall off the turnip truck. I know where my paycheck comes from. But the contents of this ad cross into editorial space when it overlaps the folio. Just wait until the flower ad runs ABOVE this headline: Deadly flower rampage kills 20. Or are we supposed to plan our editorial content AROUND the ads? It already happens in too many places. Is it too much to ask for CLEAR advertising/editorial separation, or are we going to stand around and watch our already tattered reporting credibility drift further away?

It's just so obviously an ad. That's why I'm unbothered. Now I do remember a few months back when USA Today ran two entire NASCAR advertising sections that totally mirrored the look and feel of real news sections. It was clearly advertising trying to mask itself as editorial content. That bothered me.

Yes Paul, we MUST plan our editorial content AROUND the ads... Always have, always will: Ads makes pages. Pages are for ed content. Ed content make circulation and circulation make ads. You can’t break the circle.

I have a new, small entertainment guide, and we are constantly mixing up where the ads are placed. Sometimes they're at the top and sometimes at the bottom, sometimes even in the center of the pages. We are putting out our 31st issue next week and not one complaint yet.

Jeez, if one more person posts the "we don't survive without advertising" mantra again I'm gonna hurl. How many times do I have to say that I understand where my paycheck comes from? This isn't about a distaste for advertising. This isn't about complaints from readers, who might not know or care. This is about being completely clear to our readers what is ed content and what is ad content. Have we drifted so far from the idea that ads and ed content should be separate, and furthermore CLEARLY separate?

The Hen House Market, perfect. To find out who guards the Kansas City Star's hen house, call 816-234-4144.

I'm with Ernie - the ad is just ugly.