Cashing in on elections

By: Sonya Moore Newspapers may be the origi- nal grassroots medium, but you'd never know it judging by their piece of the political-ad pie. The Newspaper Association of America's drive to get candidates ? and newspapers themselves ? to see the potential in political print ads gained impetus last August, however, when its bipartisan poll of 1,200 registered voters nationwide showed that 7 out of 10 regularly read newspapers.

While the results indicated that the voters felt television commercials were more likely to grab their attention, they found newspaper ads to be more credible than TV spots (see chart, page 53).

Since publicizing those results, and others, Jack Brady, NAA's director of marketing and advertising, regularly receives e-mails from political-consulting firms who want more information, interest that "they never had before." Brady estimates that 5% or less of the millions to be spent on political ads during the current election cycle go to newspaper ads.

Besides speaking at training conferences, the NAA also targets consultants with ads in publications such as Campaigns & Elections. To showcase how print ads can be compelling, the NAA held competitions to create political newspaper ads and compiled 50 of the best to give to consultants.

Beyond print ads, Brady tells consultants their candidates' messages can be sent out in the form of fliers and inserts, or even on plastic newspaper delivery bags. The Internet also works since a paper's Web site acts as a local hub, and inexpensive ads there can raise funds.

But none of this will do much good if newspapers'advertising departments don't pay more attention to political advertising. As Brady notes, "A majority haven't been aggressive." To correct this, the NAA has made available online a do-it-yourself kit (www.naa.org/political/ads). There also is a Flash version of the video presentation used by the NAA, with PowerPoint slides that can be customized to accompany the presentation. Brady says there will be updates, including information on the campaign finance reform bill that he believes will further prove the cost-effectiveness of newspaper advertising.

"This isn't something you just turn on during the election cycle every four years and turn back off again," Brady says, emphasizing that ads can flow for local candidates and non-electoral issues too. "We should be able to help all these [political] guys all the time."