Affirmative Procurement p.8

By: Mark Fitzgerald

An increasing number of newspapers are adopting a
purchasing philosophy aimed at hiring minority-owned vendors

FOR NEWSPAPER PURCHASING managers, encouraging minority suppliers is no longer a feel-good thing ? it's business.
Increasing numbers of newspapers are adopting a purchasing philosophy known as "affirmative procurement" ? a series of techniques to identify, qualify, encourage and assist minority-owned vendors.
Amid all the concern about rising newsprint and plastic prices, as well as corporate reorganization and cost controls, developing minority suppliers was one of the most widely discussed topics at the recent 38th annual conference of the Newspaper Purchasing Management Association (NPMA) in Cincinnati.
Increasingly, too, newspapers are taking these steps not only to build business between minority firms and their own newspapers ? but to develop commerce with minority suppliers in the larger community.
The Dallas Morning News, for instance, has an extensive in-house minority business development plan, while its corporate parent, A.H. Belo Co., is one of the founders of Dallas Together as well.
This program, operated under the aegis of the city government and the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce, is aimed at encouraging local businesses to seek out and assist minority-owned suppliers.
A similar program in Arizona, the Grand Canyon Minority Supplier Council, is chaired by a newspaper purchasing executive, Joseph F. Martinez, purchasing and financial services manager for Phoenix Newspapers Inc.
The organization, affiliated with a national association of minority supplier councils, produces a buyer's guide that certifies qualified ? and truly minority-owned ? businesses.
As much as the newspapers want to be good corporate citizens ? they also have hardheaded business reasons for encouraging the council, Martinez said.
"We got into this at Phoenix Newspapers because we want to ensure that [listed minority suppliers] are not front companies. There are a lot of front companies out there," Martinez said.
In addition to affording protection against phony minority suppliers, the council's training sessions ? which, for example, build minority sales or administration skills ? have big pluses for the newspaper agency, Martinez said.
"We used our advertising sales staff to give some formalized training [to minority businesses] on how to be better sales people. That, in turn, builds relationships . . . and [encourages] them to become advertisers," Martinez said.
Newspapers can only benefit when the number of qualified vendors grows, added Ron Shimkowski, manager of purchasing and services for the Dallas Morning News.
"It's an economic issue, not so much a social program, as it used to be considered," Shimkowski said.
That's not to say, however, that growing minority business is always easy, he added.
Shimkowski said newspaper purchasing managers should be prepared to hear complaints that minority vendors are too small and lack technical skills, and, especially, that sourcing is too time-consuming and costly.
"Sourcing is the single MBE [minority business enterprise] issue cited by buyers," Shimkowski said. "This is due to the fact that they have to go beyond business as usual. They have to go further and look harder than they normally would."
But Shimkowski says newspapers are likely to find little racial resentment from buyers or other suppliers.
At Belo, for instance, all potential suppliers are required to fill out a detailed profile form that asks not only about capabilities and financial strength but also about minority or female ownership. No suppliers complain, Shimkowski said.