It’s like the separation of church and state — advertising and editorial departments at newspapers do not work together. But it’s a symbiotic relationship. Revenue comes from ads (especially at this paper, which is free and has no paid subscriptions). And without ads, there’s no newspaper. So when a paying advertiser gets a little pissed off about something, unfavorable coming to light about them in the pages of the Aspen Daily News, they sometimes pull their ads.

Throughout three decades the Daily News has been around, a fair share of advertisers have threatened to pull their accounts, sometimes indefinitely. Most come around, and it’s water under the bridge. But a few have stuck to their guns. Here’s a selection of the highlights:
—  Dan Dunn was a columnist for the Daily during the ’90s. He was also a waiter, and became irritated with the increasingly wealthy and entitled demographic that was growing in Aspen. In one of his columns, he advised other wait staff in town to spit in people’s food as a way of getting back at them. Well, the Aspen Skiing Co., the Aspen Chamber Resort Association and a handful of other advertisers took it pretty seriously and pulled their ads.
— During the newspaper’s early days, Takah Sushi was the only sashimi-serving place in town. And they happened to be a major advertiser. When an Associated Press story about food poisoning from sushi in New York ran next to their ad in the Daily News, they weren’t exactly happy campers. The restaurant pulled its ads until another sushi joint came to town, and they were faced with some competition, said Aspen Daily News owner Dave Danforth.
— When real estate was a fledgling industry in this community, Realtors were irked by stories that reported a withering economy or gloomy forecast. In turn, they complained to the paper’s owner about its reporting. In retaliation, Danforth said he actually embargoed one of said Realtors from running advertisements for one year because of his whining. The reverse boycott lasted four or five months.
— More recently, a column by Steve Skinner sent Chrysler over the edge when he called people who drove the company’s cars “assholes” because they own SUVs. (This was around the time the company released its “Aspen” line.) Chrysler still doesn’t run ads with this paper.

But, Danforth said all of these stories are in the spirit of the Daily News.

“People expect us to do a certain kind of story, and that’s what we do,” he said.

And sometimes, that makes for fodder in itself.

christine@aspendailynews.com