L.A. Times Runs Cover Wrap for ‘Alice in Wonderland’

The Los Angeles Times has sold a cover wrap for Disney’s new Johnny Depp film, Alice in Wonderland. Readers wanting to read the front page news had to flip to a second page to get the headlines.

The wrap, which ran Friday, featured the face of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter on what appeared to be the front page of the newspaper but which was actually a fake - a move which some consider an unethical blurring of the lines between editorial and advertising.

$700K

Walt Disney paid in the ballpark of $700,000 for the four-page spread that acted as the front page, according to The Wrap.

John Conroy, spokesman for the Los Angeles Times, said the paper worked “very closely” with Disney to come up with a distinctive and exceptional way to promote the film. “It was designed to create buzz, and to extend the film’s already brilliant marketing campaign,“ he said.

Unorthodox Ad Buys Proliferating

The newspaper has a previous record of allowing unorthodox ad placements in an effort to boost ad sales. Last year, an ad resembling an article appeared on the front page of the newspaper for NBC’s Southland. The ad generated flack for the newspaper for blurring the lines between advertising and editorial, and was run over the objections of editor Russ Stanton and other senior editors at the paper.

Front-page takeovers on websites are a familiar tactic for publishers, but until recently, the front page of printed newspapers was considered sacred ground, for editorial only. But in recent years, many newspapers including the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have taken to selling ad space on their front pages. Most of these ads have been confined to small strips at the bottom of the page, however.

In the U.S., newspaper advertising revenues plunged 27.2% in 2009. Magna predicts that newspaper ad spending will continue to decline, for another drop of 10.7% this year.