A few newspapers are suddenly appearing on shelves this election season. You might have seen them show up in your mailbox. Where do they come from? Who paid for them?
Ben Franklin is considered the father of advertising because of how he got local businesses to place notices in his newspaper, which financed the whole operation. Advertising has been a significant part of newspapers for hundreds of years.
It costs a lot to print and ship a newspaper, and that doesn’t even start to take into account the staff to produce it. If the newspaper that you’re reading doesn’t have any ads in it, where is the money coming from?
Who is paying for it? Why are they spending tens of thousands of dollars – if not hundreds of thousands of dollars? What are they hoping to get for that sizable investment? What message are they trying to tell you?
It’s politics, of course. A newspaper lends legitimacy to a political opinion. It looks professional and polished and legitimate. This is how the politicians trick you into thinking opinion is fact.
Our seven local newspapers and our website are full of ads, almost entirely from local businesses. They support us and we support them.
But if you’re looking at a newspaper that has no advertisements, or only a tiny few, then you’re not looking at news. You’re looking at propaganda.
Chris Lundy
News Editor
