The Hindu's Front Page "Real Estate"

This is the front page of The Hindu today, February 29, 2008. It's a full page ad hocking a new real-estate scheme. For more than a century The Hindu has been considered one of India's best newspapers, but selling its front page to an advertiser is nothing less than editorial treason.

And it's just the most recent offender in a long line of terrible advertising ploys that undercut the credibility of journalism in India. Earlier this year the Decccan Chronicle pull a similar shenanigan when they thought no one would notice.

It's true, newspapers do need to support themselves on advertising dollars, but in order to retain credibility there is usually a wall between editorial and advertising. Reporters need to have free reign to write the stories they want, and the paper sells on the basis of those stories. By putting a full page advertisement on the front page the newspaper ceases to be a news source. It makes it the trash that delivery men leave on my doorstep.

I don't think I am going to read The Hindu anymore.