NEW YORK The New York Times is denying a claim by rival New York Post that it deliberately slashed ad rates to run the now-controversial MoveOn.org full-pager earlier this week to combat Gen. David Petraeus's testimony before Congress.
A Post story today asked why the Times slashed its basic full page ad charge of $181,000 to about $65,000, which MoveOn says it paid. The ad, criticized by conservatives and war supporters, asked, "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?"
But Reuters reports that Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis denied the rate charged indicated a political bias. "We do not distinguish the advertising rates based on the political content of the ad," Mathis told Reuters.
"The advertising folks did not see the content of the ad before the rate was quoted," she said, adding that there were over 30 different categories of ads with varying rates, based on, for example, multiple buys and other factors.
GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani joined the fray today, asserting that he is asking The Times for the “same heavily discounted rate they gave MoveOn.org” for a campaign ad this week.
POST:
According to Abbe Serphos, director of public relations for the Times, "the open rate for an ad of that size and type is $181,692."
A spokesman for MoveOn.org confirmed to The Post that the liberal activist group had paid only $65,000 for the ad - a reduction of more than $116,000 from the stated rate.
A Post reporter who called the Times advertising department yesterday without identifying himself was quoted a price of $167,000 for a full-page black-and-white ad on a Monday.
Serphos declined to confirm the price and refused to offer any inkling for why the paper would give MoveOn.org such a discounted price.
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