Competition Blackballing
By Alan Bookmiller

Here’s one for the record. What happens when your business is considered by
the local newspaper to be a competitor - and refuses to give you any press
regarding your start-up? This can hurt your chances of success if you are a
regional business.

Many news channels – newspaper, television, cable networks and radio have
websites of their own – and you can be considered a competitor. If you sell
any advertising, or compete for “eyeballs” you are a potential victim for
“competition blackballing.”

This recently happened to us here at Shoppin’ Hagerstown. Our community
website is a regionally focused site offering a discussion forum, chat, kids
section, local news, sports, shopping and local advertising…well you get the
picture. It is very important for us to get our name out to the local
population. We were contacted by the local newspaper here in town and asked
to set-up an interview for a story to be published in their “New Business
Section.” We were elated that the newspaper was going to feature us, knowing
this would be a real boost for us within the regional market.

Several days after the interview the executive director made a decision to
cancel our story because he considers us “competition.” The real kicker is
that within the recent past we have advertised in the newspaper…so they didn
’t feel it was bad business for them to accept our advertising dollars.
Also, we wonder why they even interviewed us – didn’t they know what our
business was before they interviewed us? Seems a bit strange to us and we
feel the snub is unjustified of course, but there is nothing that can be
done.

This experience greatly disturbs me and has opened my eyes. Being in a
relatively small rural area in Northwestern Maryland, the local newspaper
doesn’t have any print competition – they are the only game in town so to
speak. They have the printed news monopoly – in fact they own the cable TV
business as well. So what alternative do we have to get local press? We have
paid for newspaper advertising, but they may refuse that now as well – they
turned down a similar business to ours when they wanted to advertise. And,
news advertising is expensive for a small operation like ours so any
business news press is greatly appreciated.

The reason I am circulating this article is to warn you about a potential
problem. Consider this in your business planning – you may want to establish
whether or not your local newspaper, television or radio is warm to
supporting your new business venture. Are they willing to print a news
worthy story about your new start-up, or how about printing your
press-releases? If they aren’t, or work on other biases, it’s best to find
this out up-front so you can plan accordingly. Perhaps a large advertiser
wants to squash competition and inform the local news media they will not
spend many advertising dollars if the news advertises your business…it can
happen.

Those businesses located in regions where there are multiple newspapers
offered will be better off and will find that the print readership
competition is healthy for them. If one paper refuses to support your
business news stories and press releases, at least you have the opportunity
to send your message to the competing newspaper.

If this happens to you, you may be able to glean some positive notoriety for
your business if you editorialize your story on your website. Done right,
word of mouth can be powerful. Also, you may find other business owners who
have been snubbed and who may be willing to form an action group to work
together to affect positive change – there is power in numbers. Also, there
are usually local weekly newspapers, shopper news, regional monthly
advertising magazines where you can advertise your business, and the
advantage is that these publications usually offer considerably lower rates
than the your local “news juggernaut.”

©, 2001, Alan Bookmiller
About the Author
Alan Bookmiller owns and operates Vision Genesis, Inc. (VGI) a Marketing
Consulting firm located in Hagerstown Maryland [http://www.visiongenesis.com]
. Shoppin’ Hagerstown, a project of VGI, is an award winning community
website – you are cordially invited to visit
[http://www.shoppinghagerstown.com.] If you are interested in contacting Alan
please email him at ambookie@erols.com, or call 301-766-9302.

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