N.Y. Times admits it stumbled on MoveOn ad price

In these days of fast response, Grumpy Editor finds it interesting that it took almost two weeks after the New York Times ran a full-page ad at more than half price for the “newspaper of record” to acknowledge that it should not have given a steep discount to MoveOn.org for an ad assailing Gen. David H. Petraeus.  That ad ran Sept. 10 to coincide with the start of his appearance before Congress.

The liberal advocacy group paid $65,000 for the ad, not the going rate of $142,000.  “We made a mistake,” said a Times spokeswoman, echoing what Clark Hoyt, the newspaper’s public editor, wrote in his column yesterday.

Undoubtedly, The Times must have been getting a lot of static from long-time advertisers, such as department stores, airlines and auto makers, that pay full price, less discounts for frequency.

Howard Kurtz, Washington Post media writer, said MoveOn had no reason to believe it was paying “anything other than the normal and usual charge” and it would send The Times $77,000 to make up the difference.

Seems strange that the advocacy group somehow never checked on rates before submitting an ad and The Times display advertising department, including the sales people involved, were “unaware” of the cut-rate price. 

The Times’ Hoyt also mentioned the ad violated the newspaper’s own policy which bars attacks of a personal nature in ads.