Paying the bills

Juan Antonio Giner rightfully ridicules the journalistic lead weights who are moaning about the Wall Street Journal taking an ad on its front page. They have to pay the bills somehow. How do they think journalism is supported? By advertising. You can’t whine on the one hand about cutbacks and then whine on the other about revenue. I think it would be a mistake to hand over the page to an advertiser; it would be a mistake to blur the line between ad and edit on the page. But as Giner points out, lots of Europeans have taken ads on their front pages for year. And the front page of NYTimes.com has an ad, too.