Hold onto your ears

There’s going to be a coupon advertisement in the top right “ear” of page A1 tomorrow, editors reminded folks today. It will bring in some revenue.

Newsroomers in general have not been happy with this new piece of real estate, not just for design reasons but for ethical reasons - newspapers try to be as independent as humanly possible and putting in an advertisement on the front page makes… us… itch.

First there was a little bit of odd fascination, then cringing, then sicko off-camera journalist jokes about drain clogs, and more cringing.

But do readers mind as much?

According to a study from WSU’s Edward R. Murrow School of Communication , polled journalists said that their readers generally did not mind ads on the front page. Maybe the reader reaction will be, “Ooh! Coupon!”

Anyhoo, it will look different from today’s paper.