Editorial: Muncie Star Press is 'not interested' in ads for Muncie Free Press

I debated whether or not to mention this about the Star Press in Muncie, but I feel it's part of my duty as a grassroots publisher (watcher of the watchers) to bring it to public light. I've run a few classified ads in The Muncie Star Press in the past, and got a little bit of traffic from them. I could only afford the 'cheap' classified advertising in the beginning, though. And since I've been told that The Star Press won't mention what I'm doing with Muncie Free Press in the 'content' sections of their newspaper or website (not even their Citizen Generated content area), it was one of my only options to get mention of my efforts out to the people who subscribe to or purchase the newspaper.

It wasn't my only option for marketing (note to advertisers), though, as witnessed by our tremendous year over year growth. We're still nowhere near the level of traffic this site will eventually achieve, but we're growing at a steady pace thanks to the Internet and all the wonderful MFP supporters out there. Just goes to show you that 'newspaper advertising' isn't the only game in town anymore.  (Well, unless you're a government office who has to run legal classifieds - that's a whole other editorial, though.)

As I said, I've run a few classified ads with them, but I wanted to advertise with them more - especially on their website. I even offered to buy a forum thread to promote Muncie Free Press (kind of what you get here with our 'advertorials' that come with every banner package bought), but they said they didn't do that.  (I remember when the decision was made to run ads on A1 in the print edition. Are they still there? Not to mention the internal battles I waged against pop-ups while working for The Star Press.)

I emailed Juli Metzger, publisher of The Star Press, the other day to ask about something else and brought up the fact they hadn't gotten back to me as they said they would about advertising costs, etc. Now, maybe it was the reminder that they'd refused to acknowledge my existence on their editorial side, or perhaps the other matter I brought up (which I'm looking into more), but for whatever reason, I finally received a call from Mary Young, Advertising Director at The Star Press.

I don't remember the conversation exactly, but the words "not interested" stuck with me. That is, they weren't interested in receiving money from me to advertise Muncie Free Press anywhere in their product. I'll let readers draw their own conclusions as to why they're not interested. There are lots of possible reasons.

Oh, also, I took this screenshot the other day (maybe a month ago?) Note, though, that it was purchased via Google Adwords. What that means, basically, is that no one at the local level (The Star Press) might have known they were advertising with Muncie Free Press. That in itself is very telling about big media companies, though. (Stegasaurus anyone?)

Anyway, just wanted to mention another humorous episode and note it in the records, as the grassroots journalism movement spreads. Ok, back to work.

Your friendly and accessible publisher,
K. Paul Mallasch

Technorati Tags: Business Community Groups Delaware County grassroots journalism Juli Metzger K. Paul Mallasch kpaul MFP Site News Muncie Muncie Advertising Muncie Media Watch Muncie Star Press Opinion site news site-news

• ‹ previous
• 2269 of 3748
• next ›