By Ryan G. Murphy, Digital Media Editor

The weekly alternative newspaper “Creative Loafing” (Tampa Bay edition) is making waves this week by auctioning off editorial content in its Jan. 20 edition to the highest bidder to support The Children’s Home charity. Items up for bid include the paper’s cover, a story inside the edition, a 5-start restaurant review (never previously given), a band review and photo shoot, and a raving review (again with photos) of a party thrown by the highest bidder.

If nothing else, the paper is generating publicity – a clear intention if you look past the altruistic gesture to The Children’s Home.

In my first-ever blog on RTDNA.org, I wrote about selling your journalism soul, and how much that soul might be worth. The point of contention in that piece was that MSNBC’s Morning Joe program was clouding the editorial waters by selling program sponsorship to Starbucks for $10 million. The sale enraged some editorial purists and likely left some in MSNBC’s audience wondering if the network sold its editorial product out entirely.

Comparing that deal to the “Creative Loafing” auction, it’s easy to appreciate a bit of irony from the paper’s perspective. Whereas MSNBC never actually said, or could ever say, it was “selling out,” Creative Loafing is doing just that. There’s no hiding it. It’s in the marketing print.

"Just this once, you'll see what you get if our content actually is for sale. It's ironic, unchartered territory," said Creative Loafing editor David Warner in an interview with TampaBay.com’s Eric Deggans. (scroll down in hotlink for the piece.)

Deggans raises a question in his piece that all of us in news are wondering: “What if a group of white supremacists want to buy the cover?”

The paper maintains that it’ll take editorial control of the content, but there is a large gray area here. Someone with a strong agenda – perhaps less divisive than a group of white supremacists – could make the highest bid and leave the paper with a tough decision.

A bigger question, at least with respect to our audiences’ perception of journalism: is this promotion giving people the idea that we are an industry willing to do whatever it takes for a buck,?”

I appreciate what Creative Loafing is doing for charity. After perusing the auction web page, it’s clear that the organization is taking a fun-loving approach and targeting its alternative audience. Beyond the publicity seeking, there’s no apparent reason to think the paper is doing something malevolent. It even sites an alternative-weekly in Seattle that performed a similar auction and raised $50,000 for charity.

I’d like to see Creative Loafing exceed that goal, but I’d also like it to be a transparent as possible about the auction, especially when the content is printed for the Jan. 20 edition. The audience should know EXACTLY what it’s getting when it picks up that edition – purchased content by X, Y or Z source. Anything less compromises the editorial content and severely infringes on the audiences’ right to know the truth.

I’d like to hear your thoughts on this issue. Is Creative Loafing doing something selfish here? Would you ever auction off your editorial content for charity and a shot at publicity? Leave you comments in the section below.