3:14 PM 28 Apr 1999
New York Times to refuse
tobacco ads
April 28, 1999
Web posted at: 12:46 PM EDT (1646 GMT)
NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York Times plans to ban
advertisements
for cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products in its
pages effective
Saturday.
The Times decided on the ban, the first by a national
newspaper, because of
concerns about the harmful effects of smoking, New York
Times Co.
spokeswoman Nancy Nielsen said.
"We don't want to expose our readers to advertising that
may be dangerous
to their health," Ms. Nielsen said.
Tobacco advertising accounted for less than 1 percent of
the newspaper's
$1 billion in ad revenues last year.
More than a dozen other u.S. newspapers refuse to
publish tobacco ads.
The Seattle Times refuses ads for tobacco, handguns and
pornographic
movies, while The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C.,
refuses ads for
bingo, fortune tellers and 900 telephone numbers,
according to the industry's
Editor & Publisher International Yearbook.
Mark Smith, a spokesman for the tobacco company Brown &
Williamson,
called The New York Times' new policy "pathetic. Isn't
it ironic that a
pUblication that trumpets freedom of the press would
"
trample on the freedom
of commercial expression?"
Times publisher Arthur o. Sulzberger Jr. said that the
First Amendment
"gives the press the right to publish what it chooses
to. It doesn't force the
press to publish something, whether that's a news story
or an advertisement."
The Times likely has already run its last cigarette ad.
A full-page color ad for
Carlton cigarettes ran Monday, and no others were
scheduled before the
ban takes effect. The Times, which also shuns ads for
handguns and tear
gas, will continue to accept tobacco company ads that
don't promote
smoking.
Last year, the tobacco industry reached a $206 billion
deal with 46 states
that had sued to recover health costs associated with
smoking. The deal
bans outdoor cigarette ads and forbids ads targeting
children.
Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten, or
redistributed.
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