The October 10 issue of The L.A. Times Sunday Magazine,
which was dedicated to the opening of Staples Center, was
part of a "financial arrangement between The Times and the
arena," according to Felicity Barringer of the N.Y. TIMES,
as the paper and the arena "shared the profit from the
issue." L.A. Times Manager Holly Bowyer "confirmed that the
issue brought in more than" $2M in ad revenue. Barringer
reported the arrangement, which "provoked anxiety in the
newsroom, evolved from a broader business contract, signed
last year, that makes The Times one of 10 'founding
partners' ... of the Staples Center." The deal gives the
newspaper "a corporate box and allows it to advertise around
the arena." The arena issue "provoked enough concern on the
part of the L.A. Times City Editor, Bill Boyarsky, that he
resisted allowing his reporters to be associated with it."
Boyarsky: "I was concerned because this was an advertising-
generated issue of the magazine" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/26). The
WALL STREET JOURNAL's Lisa Bannon writes that the deal "has
raised questions about how far a paper can go without
damaging its integrity." The paper "set a new precedent by
sharing profit from the issue" with the arena's owners.
L.A. Times execs "defended the deal saying the editorial
department had complete control over the issue and none of
the partners in the Staples Center had any influence over
news content or advertisers in the issue." L.A. Times
Editor Michael Parks: "The magazine was totally conceived by
editorial. We didn't know about advertising plans and they
didn't know what we were writing." L.A. Times Senior
VP/Advertising John McKeon said that the profit-sharing deal
"was simply a different way of paying for the corporate
sponsorship" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/27).