Newspaper accused of discriminating against Christians is a distortion of the truth

I hate when people only refer to the media as "the liberal media." Over the years, like my entire adult life, I've worked in media and run several media outlets. My political party of choice was never a part of the decision to put my in charge. Which is good, since I don't claim either political party. For the record, I tend to be on the conservative side, which makes for the label of "liberal media" seem so odd to me.

But I do agree that many people in media have a liberal slant in their views. The same could be said for cooks, construction workers, accountants and bartenders. Though I think by and large, there are more liberals in media than a typical industry.

And some of those liberals can distort the truth. And some of those conservatives can distort the truth too. Such is the case with a Fox News opinion piece posted yesterday about the newspaper in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The headline for the column definitely caught my attention, as headlines are supposed to do:  "Newspaper rejects ad over the word "Christian". The Knoxville News Sentinel, owned by Gannett rejected a classified ad that read:  "Store closing sale - Cedar Springs Christian Store - Clinton Highway location - All merchandise, fixtures, slat walls must go. Sale through August 13," and then it included their phone number.

Anyone that has worked with front end systems with classified advertising will tell you that certain words will get flagged by the system to avoid discrimination. Running an ad for a 'Christian person to work in my business' is an illegal ad, and the newspaper tries to avoid those types of ads for obvious reasons.

The fine people of Knoxville and Fox News don't seem to be buying the system failure. I can assure all of you and all of my fellow Christian friends, this is not discrimination. This is a newspaper trying to protect itself from running discriminating ads and law suits. Nothing more and nothing less.

There was a failure by the classified department to not check all ads that get flagged in their system. That was a human error, probably by some working class person with no political agenda. Just someone trying to make a living and earn some commission. No word on whether they lost their job or not, but I certainly hope not.

Newspaper advertising triples the effectiveness of a marketing campaign

I've ranted for a little while about the need for positive information in the hands of people, especially sales reps within the newspaper industry. A link to a UK story hit my in-box last night, and it holds some of the most positive research for the newspaper industry I've heard in some time.

The study shows that newspaper advertising triples the impact of a marketing campaign.The overall report can be found at http://www.thedrum.com/news/2016/07/13/study-reveals-advertising-newspapers-triples-ad-campaign-effectiveness.

The research also focuses on specific sectors of business, and concluded that newspapers as a part of campaigns for banks and finance increased by 5.7 times, travel by 3 times, retail increased by 2.8 times and my favorite, automotive up 1.7 times That is a great stat to quote next week when you visit the local car dealer who bought 100's of spots on broadcast TV this weekend! Newspapers will help that campaign!

Selling a bigger and better audience still differentiates newspaper versus radio, TV and cable

I've had a subscription to Netflix for a couple years now. This monthly service has been used primarily by my wife and son, but even I've become a binge watcher this summer. The TV show Lost has been off the air since 2010, but it has been must see TV in my home this summer.

Binge watching, according to a quick internet search, is when you watch two or three episodes of a TV show in one sitting. To watch Lost as it first appeared on the ABC Network would have been a weekly investment of 60 minutes. With the magic of Netflix, I can do two full episodes in less than 90 minutes. Ahh, the magic of no commercial interruptions.

Commercial interruptions are a reality of TV, cable and radio outlets. Just the very name of it shows that the community perceives advertising as a nuisance -- interruptions. No one likes being interrupted. I've become a fan of watching TV on Netflix due to that lack of interruption.

Yet newspapers advertising by contrast, is welcome and in many respects demanded by our readers. Advertising content in newspapers are welcomed, encouraged and in fact demanded by readership. Need proof of this?  Talk to the circulation department about calls they receive because of missing inserts from the local grocery store. People can get passionate about the need for advertising in their newspaper.

Newspaper readers actively use the advertising content. According to the Newspaper Association of America's recent survey, 57% of people used advertising in newspapers to plan shopping or make a purchase decision in the past seven days. People buy newspapers for lots of reasons, including the advertising within it. That is why so many newspapers publish on page one of their weekend edition the value of the coupons available from the inserts.

Those commercial interruptions continue to take money from advertisers. People buy radio, TV or cable for a number of reasons. Ego is a big reason, as I believe many of those advertisers love seeing their face on TV or voice on the radio. Relationships are another reason, as those account executives have done a great job of developing a great rapport with the customer that translates to ad dollars out of loyalty.

Selling against those interruptions swings back in favor to the newspaper when you discuss audience. The newspaper audience is bigger and of better quality. Newspaper readers are consumers with more money to spend. The audience a newspaper delivers is also much larger than the typical TV or radio station and cable outlet can deliver.

Thetop five cable networks for 2015 according to Nielsen were:

ESPN                   2.12 average rating

FOX News           1.84 average rating

USA Network      1.80 average rating

TBS                      1.79 average rating

Disney                   1.72 average rating

To compare audiences locally, use these ratings to estimate a local audience. How does that compare with readership of your newspaper? In the case of the market I'm in, ESPN's average audience reaches only 4% of our Sunday readership.

Thesame exercise can be done for broadcast TV. The top rated network show last season was NCIS, with a 16.6 rating. While a much bigger audience than cable networks, it is still likely to be less than the readership within your market. Newspapers still provide a bigger and better audience for commercial messages. Advertisements are welcomed by newspaper readers, and avoided by TV, cable and radio audiences.

And for the record, I'm not quite done watching Lost yet. So don't spoil the ending, please!