How much of a fight should I put up over this?

At my shop, FWIW, we have a 2x1 on the top right corner of 1A, but it's usually not a big deal because even with the ad there we can have the promo space we want. it's also an ad that has cool facts about the city in which we work, so it's not like it's for a strip club or something.
We also can have up to five 1x1s on the bottom of the page, but they don't get in the way either anymore because myself and the other two copy desk people helped to a redesign that gave us more space after getting rid of a 3/4 column rail on the left hand column of the page.
So I don't mind the ads that bad, I also don't have to worry about a big 6x1 or 6x2 on the bottom of the front, either.

 

I had the same thing happen to me a couple weeks ago, but what's worse here is that it's every second week, so we have it one issue then it's gone. Extreme pain in the ass, and obviously I agree with you that it takes away from the look of the front page and my area to put information.

I worked with a guy once who quit over the same issue, but I don't know if I'd go that far. I'd certainly express my displeasure with the idea and ask that you be better informed in the future.

 

Further, I don't think I'd mind something shallow striped across the bottom of the front (ok, I would mind a lot), if it meant the banner and the bulk of the page are ad free. I think the banner area at the top of the page should be independent of advertising.

 

Good advice and worth a try.

I've talked with our ad people about design issues and how a 2x5 or 3x3 can affect a layout, and asked if possible to have 6x2 strips instead for certain inside pages. They listened, have done a pretty good job with it and sometimes can't help a different size.

Front page ads are here to stay. Like dealing with blogs or design editors with crazy ideas (Hello, Bakersfield!), we'll have to learn to work with it.

 

Yet, oddly, it keeps you fed and pays your bills.

 

Commerce will trump principle every time.

 

I think the biggest problem I have with this sort of advertising -- and I don't like it -- is that it implies, rather heavily, that whatever is being advertised has the newspaper's endorsement. There's a reason this space sells for so much more: Advertisers believe, quite rightly, that their ad will be given more credibility if it's in that position. This is particularly true, I think, for the ads at the tops of pages. It's the same reason people buy those stupid advertorials, the full-page monstrosities that pose as news, even though they look nothing like the paper's styles. (But, but, the ad reps say, we put advertisement at the top! How could you miss it?)

In fact, that gave me a thought: Someone could make an awful lot of money luring designers away from papers to design advertorials that really do resemble a particular paper's style. Pardon me while I go bathe in bleach.

 

Those ads may appear more credible, of course it makes the other stuff on the page (news) more suspect.

 

I remember back in the day when ads on our section fronts were common, the paper had a 2x4 MAACO ad on the sports front every Monday during football season one year. Each ad spotlighted one employee of the company. Amazingly, that outfit employed the dozen or so ugliest men in the history of the world. We had 'em posted on our wall.