I guess it's a sign of the times - and a sign of The Times - that the newspaper of record (?) should present a promotional article as if it's a news story.
On Saturday, the paper ran a spread under the headline Times rings up new success among smartphone users about its iPhone app having "raced to the top of the iTunes chart".
I am not wishing to rain on Wapping's parade (well, not too much anyway). Welcome to a world where others have trodden before.
But the presentation of the newsprint story was pretty close to being a piece of advertorial.
It was dressed up to appear as if it was a genuine news story (sub-deck: "Electronic media are having a transformative effect on newspapers") but it was clearly puff for the paper.
The really ridiculous bit was the statistical boast, which used Times and Sunday Times figures only to illustrate the "transformative effect", when the reality is that those of its digital rivals - Financial Times, Daily Telegraph and, yes, The Guardian - are so very much better.
