Also this issue: Strange Bedfellows The Green Party and GOP unite in the Eighth District Council race. -Daniel Brook Ready, Willing and Disposable? A successful rehab-to-work program faces the budget guillotine. -Daniel Brook Fineprint Less Words, more story. -Morris Bracy, Kelly Housen and Erin Zlomek Main Line $ex A high-priced call girl exposes her tale of dough. -Brendan McGarvey Battle Eternal Cuba traders’ convictions are overturned. Is smooth sailing ahead? -Steve Eckardt Gale Warning Screaming Bloody Murder -Daryl Gale Natural Selection -Mary F. Patel The Bell Curve City Paper's weekly gauge of Philly's Quality of Life

June 26-July 2, 2003

on media

Two-Faced

by Deborah Bolling

No big deal. That's pretty much what Daily News Managing Editor Ellen Foley said when asked about the two different covers that graced the tabloid last Friday.

On one, readers found the irascible Allen Iverson alongside Randy Ayers, the man whoâd be named the new Sixers head coach later in the day. On the other was an elaborate wraparound illustration of things to do at the Jersey Shore, with a seemingly gratuitous advertisement reading ãThis newspaper compliments of Atlantic City Hilton ÷ See our ad on page 33ä tacked onto the bottom of the back page. (Readers may have squinted to find the Hilton amidst the tons of summer-fun sketches depicted on that cover, but it wasnât there.)

Foley says that even though the hotel giant purchased 26,000 copies of the tab (the freebies were separate from the paper's 150,000 daily circulation), which they threw at the doorsteps of nonsubscribers in Philadelphia free of charge, the newspaper's content was not influenced by the buy.

"[The Atlantic City Hilton] bought an ad on the front and back of that issue," Foley says. "It's what we call a sponsored copy. It's a common technique in the newspaper business. This cover was not designed as an ad. It was designed to refer to content inside the paper. But the Hilton did pay for it."

Foley says that as a preview to a planned, summer-long weekly section featuring the shore, eight pages of copy dedicated to the resort area appeared in both editions. Ongoing shore coverage begins today in the Yo! section and runs until school starts in September, she says. Foley also pointed out that as a zoned paper, the DN has the opportunity to run two different covers four days a week, and does so regularly.

In true DN fashion, Foley points out that neither story -- not the Sixers or the shore -- led inside the paper. Sixers coverage started on page 148; the shore layout began on page 29.

"Our mission for Page One is what's going to the sell the paper," Foley says. "We thought the shore topic would sell the paper, but it was not done with the Hilton in mind. They bought the paper, it happened to be a special edition and they paid for the ad. It's that simple."