Around Sept. 11, Ads Are a Tough Sell

By: Lucia Moses As Sept. 11 nears, newspaper publishers face the same dilemma bedeviling other advertising-supported media: whether to run ads amid their extensive coverage of the anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

By accepting even patriotic ads, media outlets run the risk of offending the public at a very sensitive time. To avoid that risk, many advertisers are going to be sitting on the sidelines that day.

"You have to walk that fine line between being promotional and doing a tribute -- and I think most papers are erring on the side of doing a tribute," said Mort Goldstrom, vice president of advertising for the Newspaper Association of America. "Everybody's really clear there's a huge interest by readers in all things September 11, but they don't want to merchandise it."

In a typical approach, the Savannah (Ga.) Morning News opted to sell low-key ads in its upcoming Sept. 11 section after consulting some of its advertising customers. The Morris Communications Corp. newspaper is anxious to avoid the kind of criticism it received from some readers last year for running ads in its Sept. 11 extra edition, while still being aware of the need to cover the cost of the added newsprint. "We didn't want to be yelling at people," said Marketing Director Stacy Jennings. "It's a very sensitive issue."

The precautions extend to self-promotion. The Yuma (Ariz.) Daily Sun is donating money it receives for image ads to local charities, but won't promote that fact to readers for fear of seeming self-congratulatory.

For its part, The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif., is appealing to advertisers' desire to communicate with customers on an emotional level by accepting image ads in its anniversary section planned for Sept. 8. "I would like to think there's a chance to put a message out there of meaning and substance," said Joe Frederickson, the Belo paper's vice president of marketing (and a former president of the International Newspaper Marketing Association). "I would like to think people would recognize that for what it is."

Even those newspapers that are selling ads don't expect to make gobs of money, as image ads aren't always an easy sell. "It kind of goes against everything advertisers think they need to do to promote themselves," said Lori Stofft, marketing manager for The Yuma Daily Sun, a Freedom Communications Inc. paper. Sales reps used role-playing to prepare for calling on unconvinced advertising clients, but, Stofft said, "Honestly, we don't have any idea how it's going to sell."