Paid Ads on the Front Cover??

Hmmm....is this a good thing? Or not?

Creeping Onto the Front Covers of Magazines, Paid Ads

The April issue of Scholastic Parent & Child, scheduled to come out on Monday, will carry an ad on the front cover for the first time in the 16-year history of the magazine. The ad, for a company called Smilebox, will appear in the lower right corner of the cover and carry the label “advertisement” in small type.

The ad, a change in the magazine’s policy, came after discussions between the business and editorial sides of the magazine, owned by Scholastic Inc., as well as conversations about the concept with readers.

“There was a lot of thought put into it,” said Nick Friedman, the editor in chief of Scholastic Parent & Child. “We knew it was envelope-pushing.”

The results were deemed positive enough to go ahead with the cover ad for April and to sell cover ads for subsequent issues. The next one, planned for May, is being bought by the Juicy Juice line of beverages sold by Nestlé, one of the world’s largest advertisers.

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