More from ex-NYT-executive editor Howell Raines tell-all in the Atlantic:

Contrary to widely held beliefs in the newsroom, [movie studio] advertisers rarely complained about a bad review. (If they did, they were quickly slapped down.) What really upset them was the chronically weak editorial content of Arts & Leisure, which meant their ads were not being see by the engaged audience they wanted to reach.

(I can't resist mentioning that an exception to the no-complaint rule was Harvey Weinstein, of Miramax, whose histrionic cries of pain were endlessly amusing. He once accused me of breaking the heart of his brother Bob — not generally believed in the business to be possessed of that organ — by refusing to run a maudlin feature on their father, a failed salesman of ersatz diamonds. I directed Harvey to Vanity Fair, which turned the piece into an entertaining — and possibly true — shades-of-Willy Loman story.)