CREATIVE DAILIES CAPTURE ELECTION-RELATED ADS

By: Joe Nicholson Advocacy Groups Push Issues In Newspapers





With the Bush-Gore mano-a-mano being conducted largely in

battleground-state TV

spot ads, newspapers must be creative to find ways to pick up

election-related advertising revenue.



Advocacy groups, particularly those concerned about state or local

referendums and elections, are buying ads. For example, the Los Angeles

Times has run ads concerning education and tax referendums. The

Times did even better last August during the Democrats' Los Angeles

convention, with daily issue-ad-supported special sections.



During the presidential primaries, a few candidates bought newspaper ads.

Steve Forbes spent $230,000 on ads to promote appearances in Iowa

communities. (E&P, Feb. 7, p. 28).



"We probably could do a better job communicating [newspapers']

effectiveness in reaching likely voters on concrete, specific issues," said

John McKeon, senior vice president of advertising at the Times.

"It's a question of whether the candidate wants to make a stylistic

differentiation or an issues differentiation."







Joe Nicholson (jnicholson@editorandpublisher.com) is an associate editor for

E&P.







Copyright 2000, Editor & Publisher.