“Whatever a man wants published is advertising; whatever he wants kept out of the paper is news” is an old newspaper saying of unknown authorship. The following appears to have been published in 1921 (the Google Books date may be incorrect:

“If the paper wants it worse than the person handing it in, it’s news.”
“If the person handing it in wants it published worse than the newspaper, it’s advertising.”
 
“It’s news if they want anything kept out of the paper; it’s advertising if they want it in” was cited as an “old saying” in 1925. The editor’s office of an eastern newspaper was said, in 1941, to have had the following saying on the wall:
 
”“Whatever a patron wants published is advertising. Whatever he wants kept out of the paper is news.”
 
 
Google Books
Oregon Exchanges:
For the Newspaperfolk of the State of Oregon (Volumes 4-5)
By George Stanley Turnbull
University of Oregon
1921
Pg. 2:
For the present purpose the best I have seen is as follows:
 
“If the paper wants it worse than the person handing it in, it’s news.”
 
“If the person handing it in wants it published worse than the newspaper, it’s advertising.”
   
1 April 1925, Hattiesburg (MS) American, pg. 7, col. 4:
A delegation came into the American’s editorial department and asked to see some one who would put a piece in the paper for them. The old saying, “It’s news if they want anything kept out of the paper; it’s advertising if they want it in,” immediately came to the staff’s mind.
 
8 February 1935, The Evening Triune (Albert Lea, MN), “Politics While Still Hot” by Frank R. Kent, pg. 2, col. 6:
Washington, Feb. 6.—One of the basic tenets of adencent newspaper is this: If it is news it cannot be kept out of the paper and if it is not news it cannot be put in.
   
13 October 1941, The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, UT), “Senator From Sandpit” by Ham Park, pg. 6, col. 5:
Notes on the Cuff Department
It is said that on the wall of the editor’s office in an eastern newspaper there is printed the following: “Whatever a patron wants published is advertising. Whatever he wants kept out of the paper is news.”
   
20 November 1950, Charleston (WV) Daily Mail, “In New York With Walter Winchell,” pg. 2, col. 4:
Anon: Whatever a man wants published is advertising. Whatever he wants kept out of the paper is news.
 
Google Books
The Iowa Publisher: And the Bulletin of the Iowa Press Association
Volumes 24-28
1952
Pg. 92:
When the free-publicity seeker wants it worse than you do, it’s advertising. When you want it worse than he does, it’s news.
 
24 March 1954, Cedar Rapids (IA) Gazette, “Prof. Steigleman Cites Newspapers as Key to Peace,” pg. 4, col. 1:
What is news? Steigleman mused: “Anything somebody wants put in the paper, that’s advertising. Anything somebody wants kept out of the paper, that’s news.”
(Walter A. Steigleman, associate professor, University of Iowa School of Journalism.—ed.)
 
Google News Archive
23 June 1965, Nashua (NH) Telegraph, “F.H.D.‘s Around the Town,” pg. 4, col. 6:
An idea of the problem we face in doing this can be culled from a recent editorial in the National Publisher which will be found here. It says:
 
“Free publicity can kill any newspaper; it must be kept under constant vigilance. An editor once told me, ‘News is something somebody wants kept out of the paper.’ Think about that for a moment and you see he is ‘correct.’”
 
Google Books
Handbook on International Public Relations: Western Europe
By Hill and Knowlton International
New York, NY: Frederick A. Praeger
1967
Pg. 150:
The press’s attitude at the time could be summed up in the once popular saying, “If you want us to print it, it’s advertising; if you don’t want us to print it, it’s news.”
     
TV Week
March 29, 2008
Rather’s Still Making News at HDNET
‘Toxic Trailers’ Piece Among AHCJ’s Reporting Honorees
On March 29 the Association of Health Care Journalists will present awards for the best health reporting of 2007. Among the winners in the television category is legendary newsman Dan Rather, who since leaving the CBS News anchor chair in 2005 has resumed his bulldog investigative reporting as managing editor and host of HDNet’s newsmagazine “Dan Rather Reports.”
(...)
TVWeek: Advertising—in what way?
Mr. Rather: If the head of FEMA comes out and holds a news conference to talk about the wonderful things they are doing, that’s advertising. FEMA does do some good work, but that’s basically advertising for FEMA. What’s news is what they don’t want the public to know or what the public needs to know. That’s news.
   
The Border Mail (Australia)
HOWARD JONES RETIRES AFTER 50 YEARS IN WRITING | Photos, video, message wall
By JODIE O’SULLIVAN July 11, 2014, 1:43 p.m.
(...)
A newspaper man through and through, Howard says he’s “old-fashioned” in that he believes news is news and advertising is advertising.
 
“There’s an old saying that if somebody rings you up with a story that’s advertising, if they ring you up and they want something kept out of the paper, that’s news,” he says.