By Sarah Rabil

Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- New York Times Co. signed CBS Corp. as a front-page advertiser in its flagship newspaper starting today, in a long-term deal designed to help counter declining revenue.

CBS became the first display advertiser on the front of the New York Times, with a color ad across the bottom of the page thanking viewers for boosting its television network to No. 1. CBS will run ads promoting its radio, TV, news, sports, Internet and Showtime units on the majority of Mondays this year, George Schweitzer, CBS marketing group president, said in an interview.

“They came to us indicating they were going to sell franchise positions on their front page,” said Schweitzer, who declined to comment on the cost. “We are long-time believers in the New York Times, the value of advertising there.”

The newspaper joins national publications including Gannett Co.’s USA Today and the Wall Street Journal, owned by News Corp., in trying to boost ad sales with more prominent placement. The New York Times, which has been printing ads on the first page of inside sections since 2006, is tackling an accelerating drop in industrywide ad revenue amid the U.S. recession.

The company’s November advertising sales tumbled 21 percent to $149.9 million from a year ago, according to a statement last month. That includes all of the company’s units from community newspapers to radio to About.com. The New York Times Media Group, comprising the flagship newspaper and the International Herald Tribune, saw ad sales drop 21 percent to $93.4 million.

Premieres, Special Events

The new ads are being offered below the fold, meaning the lower half of the page, New York Times said today in a statement. They’re being sold at a premium compared with other ads inside the newspaper and require a “multiple placement commitment,” said New York Times spokeswoman Diane McNulty, who declined to be more specific.

CBS didn’t previously have a regular advertising presence in the New York Times, Schweitzer said. The media company would occasionally run full-page ads to publicize TV show premieres, election coverage and special events, he said.

New York Times, the third-largest U.S. newspaper publisher, is seeking a buyer for its 17.5 percent stake in the holding company for the Boston Red Sox baseball team, according to a person familiar with the discussions. The company, with a $400 million credit line expiring in May, is also pursuing a sale- leaseback of its headquarters and slashed its dividend by almost three-fourths in November.

New York Times was up 1 cent at $7.60 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have lost 55 percent of their value in the past 12 months.

The Wall Street Journal said in 2006 that it would start selling ads in the lower right-hand corner of its front page. USA Today began publishing front-page ads in 1999.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Rabil in New York at srabil@bloomberg.net