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Ad Reporter was a daily column of blurbs about The Times-Picayune advertisers launched in 1981 by Advertising Director Bob O’Neill. It revived and updated a previously popular “Want Ad Reporter” column by Maud O’Brien.
Advertisers received no-frills “advertorial” coverage the newsroom considered “too commercial” to cover in the days before free self-promotion existed on Facebook and Twitter.
Sales, bargains, new products and services, grand openings and special events (with photos) were spotlighted in the feature that ran in the Metro section until 2012. Advertisers appreciated the increased sales and reader interest that inevitably followed a column mention.