The Village Voice Gangs Up On City Hall

Near Pier 11 in Downtown Manhattan, someone has gathered all the Village Voice newspaper boxes from the area and corralled them together street side. Not entirely sure what is going on here, but that sole City Hall box does not look the least bit intimidated. Anyone have a suggested explanation for this?

Related:
Wall Street Journal Steps Off The New York Times
Newspapers Are So Hot Right Now

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Is The Wall Street Journal's Cut Rate Advertising Pricing Illegal?

Rueters reported last week that The Wall Street Journal: "is offering some businesses firesale prices for full-page ads in its highly anticipated New York edition to seduce advertisers away from The New York Times."

This sounds similar to the fight between the SF Weekly and San Francisco Bay Guardian in The Great West Coast Newspaper War.

In that case a San Francisco jury found the SF Weekly guilty of: "lowering the costs of its advertising space with the intent of putting its rival out of business." They were ordered to pay $21 million in damages.

Previously on The New York City Newspaper Wars

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Shots Fired: New York Newspaper Wars Heat Up And Wall Street Journal Plays Dirty

The Wall Street Journal hit the switch on their "Greater New York" section at 12am on Monday morning. Hamilton Nolan at Gawker matter-of-factly wrote: Let the Newspaper War Begin.

NYC The Blog would like to report it has, and The New York Times has lost their first stronghold.

The WSJ is taking all steps necessary in their quest for market share, including obscuring the competition in Starbucks locations throughout Manhattan. Below, see photographic evidence from two separate Starbucks location on the Upper East Side, displaying The WSJ strategically placed on top of and all over The NYT.

Click through for closer inspection, and notice the stands featuring The WSJ front and center are branded for The Times! Shots fired Clark Hoyt? Indeed.

Wall Street Journal Launches New York Metro Paper Online

The well reported battle between The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times for the hearts and minds news beat in metro New York City arrived quietly last night at around 12am, when the online edition of the WSJ's new paper hit l'internets at http://wsj.com/ny. The twitter feed is at @WSJNY.  

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The New York Times Purchasing Sponsored Tweets

After discovering Sponsored Tweets in the feed of @newyorkpost yesterday, and wondering aloud if other news orgs practices this, twitter user @samdawnpaul brought attention to this tweet from Time Out New York's twitter feed.

Interestingly enough, as seen above, it is a "Sponsored post" for The New York Times, offering 50% off subscriptions. It seems innocuous enough; one can imagine the use of them becoming common, without much fanfare. Though admittedly, there is something slightly sad and desperate about this particular "Sponsored post."

Maybe 'sponsored posts' in tweets of others, purchased by The New York Times (most likely included in an ad package), is out of the ordinary—like a warm thank you or emoticon on their Facebook page, too new and unfamiliar—ever so slightly unsettling.

Or maybe not, who knows? Sponsor tweets away!

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New York Times' International Herald Tribune Runs First World Wide Front Page Advertisement

On Dec 14, blogger Drunken Expat Writer posted a photo (seen at right) of a the International Herald Tribune with a full page advertisement for Rolex adorning it's front page. He titled the post: "F*ck You International Herald Tribune," continuing, "...you become the first "newspaper of record" to sell your entire front page to advertisers. You should be ashamed. Even William Randolf Hearst wouldn't have done this."

According to Jean-Christophe Demarta, Director of International Advertising for the New York Times Media Group, which published IHT, this is not the first time they covered the front page in an ad, but it was the first time they did so world wide. He told NYC The Blog in an email:

The principle of doing a coverwrap is not new. The IHT does it frequently on several distribution zones such as hotels, airport lounges or trade fairs. However, it was the first time that the IHT ran such an ad on a WW basis.

Asked about the cost for such a campaign, as there was no rate card available for such an option, Demarta emailed:

The rate cannot be found on our standard card and can only be communicated if the name of the client and the nature of the operation is known. I am sure you understand that this a very exceptional execution which cannot be repeated frequently.

This is clearly a sensitive issue for the IHT, and it seems that someone at the company has taken to the comments at Drunken Expat Writer to defend this first ever world wide front page ad:

Newspapers Are So Hot Right Now

Newspapers are being used in all manner of creative endeavors lately, in addition to their normal status as news delivery systems. Recently, there was the fake New York Times courtesy of the Yes Men and the six issues of a one-off newspaper that the Lower East Side's Dexter Sinister recently produced in Penn Station—right under the nose of the New York Times.

And now Twitter user AustinHorse alerted me to an interesting advertisement atop a taxi cap, for the A&E television show Hoarders. The campaign utilizes clear panels on the rooftop ads, and fills them with old newspapers. You can get a good look at them below, in photos posted by blogger Ask A Copywriter.

Interestingly, he also spied the same advertisement removed from the roof of a cab, left alone and abandoned on a sidewalk of New York City. So many metaphors, yah?

Put Your City On Election Edition

Boy watching Charles Rangel arrive off to the right at the election viewing party on 125th and Adam Clayton Powell BLVD

• Victory in Harlem, audio and photo <WNYC>
  
• They also have many more photos from around the boroughs at their Flickr, here.
• Subway Conductor Offers Thanks To Obama And Family On Morning Commute<Urbanite>
  
• Entitled douchebags in Williamsburg use election results as excuse to act like entitled douchebags, hoping police will give them a pass. Police do not play along. <Gothamist>
  Note to everyone in Williamsburg who seem to be so persecuted all the time...did you ever think that maybe you're the one with the problem?
• Reports from reporters in the field last night <City Room>
  
• Newspapers sell out everywhere early <City Room>
  
• Vote with your gum <Runnin' Scared>
  
• Polling New York City's voting history <The Bowery Boys>
  
• Looking For a McCain Voter in New York <NY Mag> (Try Crown Heights)