Barking up the wrong tree
Well the Black press is still at it. This time George E. Curry, editor-in-chief of the NNPA News Service and BlackPressUSA.com has joined the ranks of the whiners mass choir by complaining against advertisers that do not advertise in Black newspapers. Here are some excerpts of his latest article.
He is calling it “Economic Terrorism”.
“Whether it’s the refusal of some companies to advertise in Black newspapers, employ Black ad agencies or adopt a we-know-it-all attitude, African-Americans are getting shafted. And it affects African-Americans in so many ways.”
“Adonis Hoffman, senior vice president for the American Association of Advertising Agencies, said it is a fact that some advertisers can reach Blacks without going through Black media. While that is technically correct, it ignores some important considerations. First, numerous surveys show that African-Americans give more credibility to ads that appear in Black publications. Second, a company that advertises in a White-owned publication could be speaking to anyone. However, when they advertise in Black outlets, they are demonstrating that they value Black consumers and are making a specific appeal to them.” (more…)
For starters, advertisers are not obligated to advertise with ANYONE. If Black newspapers were as effective as he is claiming, it would be a greater loss to the advertisers themselves and not the newspapers. With a majority percentage of every dollar spent in the Black community ALREADY going to these advertisers, the Black press has virtually no bargaining chip in this situation. Newspapers all over the country are losing readers primarily because of the Internet. The Los Angeles Times is currently facing potential job cuts due to this change in the industry. Other newspapers around the country are facing similar fates. Black newspapers are no different.
I did a quick website ranking search on Alexa.com just to do a quick comparison of several well-trafficked black websites I knew off-hand (mind you, although Alexa is not 100% accurate, it does provide a ball park figure of just how much traffic a website gets). I looked at BlackElectorate.com, BlackAmericaWeb.com, and blackvoices.aol.com. ALL OF THEM beat blackpressusa.com hands down.
As I have said many times in the past, the Black press has been an invaluable tool in our community. But their refusal to acknowledge this trend in the printed news world by turning it into a racial slap in the face to the Black community is downright sickening. When was the last time you heard of a newspaper doing an editorial blasting folks for not advertising with them? Some of these Black-owned newspaper outlets need to merge with other Black-owned papers and develop a robust web presence. This is where Black readers are going.
Sigh!
George Curry’s not totally wrong here by citing the obvious: ad agencies discriminate against Af-Am owned media. You’d think after the Katz fiasco from a couple of years back, there would be more effort by the ad industry to diversify their buys given the the slightly higher rates of media consumption by Af-Ams.
OTOH, there are two mitigating circumstances. One is there are now Af-Am owned ad agencies (Don Coleman, Spike DDB, etc.). Two, American newspaper readership is in decline throughout the country. Curiously, magazines are bucking the downward arcs of circulation and revenue sales experienced by newspapers. It’s evident the problems facing Af-Am owned newspapers and newspapers in general aren’t endemic to the entirety of print media.
While Black-owned newspapers are in desperate need of business models in step with today’s market realities, IMO the keys to their future success are in content and sales strategy rather than technology. An argument can be made the Black press isn’t losing ad dollars or viewers to the Internet — especially given Internet news outlets are ‘loss leaders’ subsidized by owners of print and other media corporations (e.g.; Black Planet). Also, most Black-owned newspapers already have web sites. Presuming the need for Black print media as bona fide, I’m not sure a merger between two or more papers (or with other media companies) would address the core challenges facing the industry.
Comment by MIB | September 21, 2006
As I mentioned in an earlier posting, while many of these Black-own papers do have an online presence (as you pointed out), many of them only post information once a week (weeklies). Most people want their information yesterday and are not willing to wait a week to get it. That is one of the main reasons why newspapers are loosing readership to alternative sources such as blogs and other online news formats.
As you also pointed out, the industry in general is seeing a decline in readership (not just Black newspapers). However how many times do you see mainstream papers like the LA or NY Times blasting potential advertisers because they choose not to advertise in their paper? If Black newspapers have as much “juice” in the community that Curry is claiming here, wouldn’t that be a BIGGER problem for the advertisers? Yes, strategy is something they should look at. This should also include a real-world look at Black newspapers that are barely turning a profit.
Comment by Duane | September 21, 2006
I agree one problem with Black-owned newspapers is their publication cycles. But I know of independent weeklies that make a tidy profit. I suspect many Black-owned papers attempt to be all things to all people on a shoestring budget when they’d be better off focusing their limited resources covering one or two local issues in depth. This is what I was alluding to earlier when discussing content. Perhaps NNPA could then syndicate these articles to affiliated newspapers.
I’m not convinced newspapers are ‘losing’ readers to blogs and the Internet per se as much as they have yet to understand how to adapt web technology to their advantage. For example, the blogosphere’s accommodation of disinformation and misinformation makes for a very risky proposition to ‘credible’ media outlets attempting to compete by sheer volume or speed of information delivered. Yet, a Washington Defender has the capacity to produce an in-depth profile, series or study far beyond that of an individual blogger with much more reliability. I see publishers of Af-Am newspapers redefining their roles (publishers become infomerchants) and their ways of doing business (’open’ submission policy, content diversification, licensing, etc.) in order to survive into the future.
Your questions raise an interesting point about the compromises inherent with commercial news.
Comment by MIB | September 21, 2006