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More ad subtlety at STLtoday

A couple of months ago, when the St. Louis Post-Dispatch plastered its website with garish wallpaper advertising the opening of the Lumiere Place casino, I wondered aloud:

While it’s likely that the wallpaper will disappear once we get past this opening day for the new Laclede’s Landing casino, it’s possible that this is just the start of a new and visually intrusive ad arrangement at the website.

Just the start, indeed. Anybody want to go see Jersey Boys?

Now as before: Subtle!

Also as before, the eye-lacerating advertising tiles initially fill the screen whenever you load or refresh a page at STLtoday.com, then recede to the right-hand side of the viewport.

You can’t help thinking that the Post-Dispatch must be in desperate need of ad revenue these days, given its willingness to irritate its readers with this kind of ad placement. We said it before, and we’ll say it again:

[Newspaper] websites will naturally undergo evolution as publishers try to maximize profits and attract readership, but the kinds of changes we’re seeing at STLtoday.com - which already suffers from a crowded, clunky design - don’t help. One can only wonder what other changes are in store for a newspaper website that is already a less than inviting experience for readers.

The really bad news: Jersey Boys doesn’t open at the Fox Theatre until April 23. Ouch.

Update: It’s now Tuesday, and it looks like the ad is no longer running. It’s a long way until the musical opens at the Fox, though, and ad dollars are precious…

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