On Friday the New York Times was the first newspaper to run the new full-page ad from the Newspaper Association of America. The ad ironically sells newspapers to advertisers, professing their value as a medium for advertising, Editor & Publisher reported on Friday.

"This one took a little different tact," Randy Bennett, NAA senior vice president for business development, said about the ad. "To counter the drumbeat of negative news people are seeing about newspapers."

The ad takes the form of a letter from NAA President and CEO John Strum and acts to debunk recent "myths" about the newspaper industry and its supposed death.

An example reads, "1. Myth: No one reads newspapers anymore. Reality: More than 104 million adults read a print newspaper every day, more than 115 million on Sundays. That's more people than watch the Super Bowl (94 million), American Idol (23 million) or that typically watch the late local news (65 million)."

Strum closes by stating: "This is not a portrait of a dying industry. It's illustrative of transformation. Newspapers are reinventing themselves to focus on serving distinct audiences with a variety of products, and delivering those audiences effectively to advertisers across media channels."

The ad was run by The Times for free, a request of the NAA. The association has proposed that its 1,500 newspaper members run the ad without charge. As of Friday, the Times was the only paper who had printed the ad, but Bennett said that other newspapers including The Dallas Morning News and several Community Newspaper Holding Inc. publications had agreed to run the ad free of charge, according to Editor & Publisher.

"We have not heard from a wide swath of our members," he said. "We do expect a wide range of newspapers will run the ad."