Environmental group buys WSJ ads criticizing paper’s stance

Paul Farhi of The Washington Post reports about an environmental group that is running a series of ads on The Wall Street Journal editorial page criticizing its view on global warming.

Farhi writes, “According to internal documents supplied by the environmental organization, the newspaper is charging the group $36,528 for the Journal-bashing ad while charging $27,309 each for the eight ads that follow it (the last three in the series are freebies, known as ‘bonus’ ads).

“Journal spokeswoman Colleen Schwartz denied that the paper initially rejected the first ad. ‘We do welcome the debate,’ she said.

“And that premium price? It’s actually not a premium, Schwartz said, but the standard, non-discounted rate. Any advertiser that challenges something in the paper can expect to pay this rate, she said. All other ads are subject to negotiation and discounts. And that’s what happened here: The partnership paid the standard rate for the first ad and received discounted prices for the rest of the series, she said.

“Bottom line: The Journal published the Journal-bashing ad in Tuesday’s edition.”

Read more here.