This week's Friday Poll question was suggested by RSC member Bill Turner, who wrote to tell us about some conversations he'd had with the publisher of a small town weekly newspaper. In Bill's words:
"...she said she was amazed how radio gave it away while she got full price.
I'll explain. Newspapers have a long history of a policy: if you charge we do. If the plate is passed, the donation suggested or a price set, no matter the non-profit entity, it is a paid ad at full rate. This includes the cheerleaders selling candy bars, the pancake feed by the volunteer firefighters, the revival at a church and the reduced cost rabies clinic hosted by the city when dog licenses are due. She says radio does it for free and she didn't get that. ... She says she sometimes makes a donation of at least some of those funds back to the non-profit but she said this is after they paid for those ads. For her, it is important she establish a value for her paper with non-profits as well. In fact, she says with all the national chains, small town merchants have less and less to spend on advertising and she needs the income."
Bill raises an excellent question: why should radio give away valuable air time to a group that's willing to pay the newspaper for publicizing the same information? So this week's poll question asks:
Should radio stations charge for PSA's (or try to monetize them)? Why or why not?
What are your thoughts on this? Please share them in a comment below.
Do it if you can. It didn't work well for us. People understand that newspapers require paper and ink. They have been allowed to think that radio is air, so it's free. If you decide to charge, you might want to institute an educational process for your organizations that expect air time for free.
As I was told but can't confirm, Jerry Clower, a devout Christian, was often asked to speak at churches for free. The problem was, he made his living by speaking. But, ministry was an important aspect of his life. Therefore, he allocated a percentage of his available dates for no-charge appearances. If a church contacted him to speak and wanted him to speak for free, he gave them a date - often legitimately years in the future. If they were able to pay him, they could get a date in weeks or months. It was up to the church to decide. Who could complain?
The point is, and I've never really thought about it until just now, make your "free" inventory a limited commodity. Determine who qualifies for free air time. If you want, make the policy that an organization is not eligible if they pay elsewhere. If you want to continue to be better than newspaper, give the organization the political rate and free production. In any case, work closest with those organizations that understand and appreciate what you do AND treat you fairly.
None of us likes being treated unfairly, but the misconceptions that people have about the cost to provide radio as a service are at least partly our fault.
John CarrollWe always ask if their group is purchasing an ad in the newspaper. If they says yes, then they will also have to purchase an ad on the radio. For years radio has given away PSAs so they just assume this now. It's an education process.
at April 28, 2018 6:04 PM PDT
I battle this all the time. We have a local paper that people go to firsts thing and then they ask the paper what else they can do and -- get this - the paper says, well, you might go out to the radio station. What the hell are we? The paper - if they're lucky - sells 10-20 percent of the 3000 papers they sell each week. I've literally taken pictures of stacks of papers at local stores and showed businesses - here is your advertising dollars at work. They are not selling. And the business just kind of shakes their head. We had one advertiser who was spending $60,000 a year in advertising in the local paper and they came to us and said, "It's not working" and we asked why they were spending that much and they said, "Because they told us we needed to." I told them, we can reach more people by you only spending $1500 a month and you can put the other money back into your business. If we work for you, then next year we'll ad more spots and you'll still be saving money. We have become the store's only form of advertising.
So these churches, groups and service clubs come to us and say - the paper said we should come out here and see what you could do for us.
I have told these groups for the past five years -- out of fairness, since we're a much bigger company than the "paper" that you've put your faith and money with -- spend with us, what you've spent with them. 80 percent of the time we hear, "we spent it all with the paper". And like a police officer talking to a rape victim, I hand them a blanket and a cup of coffee and tell them, well, if you want more people to hear about your event, next year come and see me and we'll spend your money a little more wisely.
Very very frustrating.
Rebecca White said:
I told them, we can reach more people by you only spending $1500 a month and you can put the other money back into your business.
How much better could you have done with the entire budget? If you want to compare the effectiveness of the two media, do so on a level playing field - dollar for dollar.
I battle this all the time. We have a local paper that people go to firsts thing and then they ask the paper what else they can do and -- get this - the paper says, well, you might go out to the radio station. What the hell are we? The paper - if they're lucky - sells 10-20 percent of the 3000 papers they sell each week. I've literally taken pictures of stacks of papers at local stores and showed businesses - here is your advertising dollars at work. They are not selling. And the business just kind of shakes their head. We had one advertiser who was spending $60,000 a year in advertising in the local paper and they came to us and said, "It's not working" and we asked why they were spending that much and they said, "Because they told us we needed to." I told them, we can reach more people by you only spending $1500 a month and you can put the other money back into your business. If we work for you, then next year we'll ad more spots and you'll still be saving money. We have become the store's only form of advertising.
So these churches, groups and service clubs come to us and say - the paper said we should come out here and see what you could do for us.
I have told these groups for the past five years -- out of fairness, since we're a much bigger company than the "paper" that you've put your faith and money with -- spend with us, what you've spent with them. 80 percent of the time we hear, "we spent it all with the paper". And like a police officer talking to a rape victim, I hand them a blanket and a cup of coffee and tell them, well, if you want more people to hear about your event, next year come and see me and we'll spend your money a little more wisely.
Very very frustrating.
We love to help.... it does make me sad when they spend $$ on billboards and print... but ask US for free PSA's..... so we just have that as a stipulation for PSA's.... if you're spending $$ elsewhere, we can't do it for free... we will give our PSA inventory to an organization who has no budget (there are MANY)
Big John, your policy is as fair as it gets. I share your empathy for helping organizations that haven't the finances to publicize their cause and am glad to help them; that said, it's a great opportunity to invite like-minded businesses to show their support by ponying up some advertising dollars (from which they benefit, as well) to partner with the station in promoting the non-profit.
But when an organization is spending money on newspaper or other media, I expect equal consideration. We're a business, not a doormat.
