Newsweek story about faulty drug company tests is held due to ad

Nick Summers of the New York Observer writes Wednesday about how an an article slated to run in Newsweek about faulty drug company testing has been held the last few issues — at first because of a drug company ad.

Summers writes, “Ms. Begley’s piece had no specific time peg and could be temporarily shelved, while another piece by Washington reporter Eve Conant had a firm time peg to ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ legislation. The editors ordered the swap. Ms. Conant’s story and the Lipitor ad ran; Ms. Begley’s piece entered a state of ad-driven limbo.

‘We didn’t kill Sharon’s story. We have every intention of running it in January,’ Mr. Klaidman told The Observer at the time. The two editors made the case that the Begley decision was not a case of nefarious corporate intrusion on journalism, but rather an embarrassing — and strictly logistical — incident facing a weakened magazine with not enough pages.

“A year-end special issue followed, and then two dark weeks because of lack of advertising and merger issues. But the next regular issue of Newsweek is on newsstands now — and the Begley piece is still missing. Yesterday, after renewed queries from The Observer, a new interim editor of Newsweek, Steve Koepp, asked to be shown a copy of the article, which several staff members say had been left for dead. It’s now slated it to run in next week’s edition.”

Read more here.