The Times said it has a long history of having not just advertisers but various types of outsiders attend its Page One meetings as observers. (They are not to give input.) Stories of more advertisers visiting lately could be the function of a more aggressive sales team, a Times rep said. ​

There’s a trend toward newsrooms opening their Page One meetings to the public, which could include advertisers, to appear more transparent and help people understand the process, said Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute and a longtime observer of news ethics. Two prominent examples are the former McClatchy newspaper chain and CBS News.

In addition to bringing people into the process, opening up the Page One meetings improves the quality of the events, which could otherwise have a tendency to have participants “sucking up to the main decision-maker,” Rosenstiel said. On the other hand, he said, “If it’s done in way that only special advertising people get in and not everyone, that’s a little more peculiar.”

Digiday did some checking, and the practice is less common at other traditional news organizations.