Columnist: This Idea Should Have Died at 'Spitball Stage'
Connie Coyne
writes in The Salt Lake Tribune that the The Commercial Appeal's attempt to monetize content was a big "oops" in the world of journalistic "stinkers":
"Hold on to your seats. The
Memphis newspaper wanted to monetize the content of news stories by
putting sponsorship credit lines above the body of stories, and the
effort blew up in the newsroom.
... A newspaper has nothing if
it loses its credibility with readers. If the trust relationship
between the paper and the reader is broken, then the newspaper loses
its ability to serve that reader."