Oregon Media Insiders

They even charge to read on-lone..hence, never read the rag.

Having worked in newspapers for more than 20 years I can say that papers will sell advertising in any space they can.

Many, if not all, special sections I have been involved with have had advertising in them -- so this move doesn't surprise me. More and more papers are moving to put advertising on their front pages -- a practice I personally don't like.

If the advertisers knew going in it was going to be an opinion section with endorsements or whatever, then I think there is nothing wrong with this.

With the downturn in newspapers market share and the reduced level of classified advertising and national advertising, you are going to see more of this in the future.

What is the deal with this post?

A small paper on the coast is accussed of being un-ethical because it ran political ads in a political special section? How much money do you think the paper brought in on this anyway? $5,000? $10,000? $15,000?

Whatever the amount, it's nothing compared to all the money radio, television, direct mail and cable are raking in during this political season.

Across the state newspapers are doing their job covering all the races and ballot measures, and interviewing candidates. But when it comes to selling a few ads, a newspaper is unethical?

The average reader doesn't care if the ad is on the opinion page or the obit page. They just want the facts and most know that the newspaper is the best source for this.

No one turns on the television or the radio waiting for the next political hate ad to tell them how untrustworthy the other candidate is.

Look back a few posts and look up the discussion on how much the candidates were spending on advertising. The real ethical issue is the slap in the face newspapers get because political candidates don't advertise in newspapers. They just use the newspapers for their letter writing campaigns and to brag if they received that paper's endorsement.

Maybe the ethical question is - "How are other mediums serving local voters to justify the millions they are making each political season?"

Newspapers are held to a higher standard than the rest of the media.
This has nothing to do with how much money is spent on political ads in papers, but the fact that a paper would be willing to put ads in an opinion section.
It gives the appearance that the papers opinion is for sale, thus discrediting them.
I was raised in a newspaper environment, and throughout my life it was reinforced that #1 you never sell ads on your front page and #2 you never sell ads on your editorial page.

Getting off topic, I think the biggest problem with papers today is that the owners and publishers come out of the advertising departments for the most part and have never read about or given thought to media ethics.

The editorial page is where a newspaper states it convictions. If those can be bought and sold, then the paper cannot be trusted.