New York Times Is Big Apple Favorite

Today, a big swath of the nytimes.com home page has been taken over by an Apple ad. Directly below the New York Times banner, there's a banner ad with a quote from The Wall Street Journal comparing Apple's Leopard software (favorably) to Windows' Vista . To the right, in a double-wide skyscraper ad placement, there's Justin Long and the PC guy; he climbs a ladder on the right and magically passes through to the top ad, adding the word "NOT" to the end of the Journal quote (get it?)

It's the second time nytimes.com has done such an ad--the first time was with Apple on Dec. 14, 2007.

It's a pretty giant ad--whether the industry term "takeover" applies or not, the ad was certainly the most prominent thing on the nytimes.com homepage for much of the day. What did the editorial side think of all this?

"Apple created the ad and its placement on the home page was agreed to by a group of editors and business side folks," Times spokesperson Catherine Mathis wrote in an email to Media Mob.

We've asked a couple of follow-up questions (who gets to decide on the editorial side? are there limits to how often a placement like this will be allowed? will other advertisers be able to buy this prime placement?) and we'll update you if we hear anything.