Ad Rep Firm Hurls Charges At Competitor p.9

By: Dorothy Giobbe

Black-owned Amalgamated Publishers Inc. accuses rival sales
firm of claiming to be minority-owned in order to win clients sp.

ONE OF THE country's oldest African-American ad representative companies has accused a rival firm of claiming that it, too, is a minority-owned company in order to win clients ? who they, themselves, deny that race affects their decisions.
Amalgamated Publishers Inc. (API), a 34-year-old organization that sells national ad space for 155 African American-owned newspapers, claims that American Minorities Media (AMM) has deceptively promoted itself to advertisers as minority-owned and -operated.
"AMM is trying to position itself as a minority-owned advertising rep firm placing ads in black newspapers when, in fact, it is owned by a white female and a white male," said Ernest Pitt, publisher of the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Chronicle and chairman of API.
"It's a typical situation where a company uses a black front to undermine the relationship of a black-owned company and its clients," Pitt added. "This is really an attack on black entrepreneurship."
Linda Cardoso, vice president of entertainment sales and publicity for Market Place Media, AMM's privately held parent company, said that AMM has "never" represented itself as African American-owned.
Further, she said, AMM represents "not only African-American papers but many ethnic publications."
AMM sales literature boasts of being the "established representative of 300 ethnic publications," and of having a "strong current client base in ethnic markets."
Also, according to the sales material, AMM will "work closely" with the marketing committee of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) ? a trade organization that represents 205 African American-owned newspapers.
Robert Bogle, president of the NNPA, said "AMM has attempted to lead our members to believe that it is black-owned, and that's not so."
Although Bogle also serves on API's board of directors, he insisted that he "isn't defending" API.
Kevin West, executive vice president of Market Place Media, declined to provide information regarding the ownership structure of AMM, but said that API "is going to be sued.
"[API's allegations] are categorically and unequivocally a lie," West said. "We have not won any business ever based on the perception that we are minority-owned. We do not, have not, and do not need to position ourselves in that way."
West added, "AMM has brought something very much needed to the African-American market . . . . API is trying to create a veil to cover up their inadequacies as a rep firm for the African-American print."
Michael House, president of API, said that in client sales meetings and "behind closed doors," AMM has attempted to convert a number of API clients by touting its close ties with African-American newspapers.
However, clients cited by API said that AMM hasn't claimed it is an African American-owned enterprise, and that in any case, ownership of AMM played no part in the placement of ads.
Specifically, API claimed that Warner Brothers and Disney switched some motion picture advertising to AMM, after becoming convinced that AMM was minority-owned.