After interviewing Maggie Anderson and reading her book, where she shared how they survived buying Black for a year, it makes you want to put forth an effort to support Black business and in turn I am sure they will do business back.
A historic moment in the media
At a time when things seem to be good inOhio, you wonder how some companies are faring and what they are doing to keep the doors open everyday.
Some Black businesses have cut days and workers to survive.
Hearing of a new campaign about advertisers using the Black media/press more is something that I would agree with. Have you noticed some full page color ads are in the other papers but not in the Black press?
Organizations in the past have all helped in situations where Blacks were mistreated or simply looked over for positions. In the banking business, a man by the name of Robert Samuels in 1975 formed the Urban Bankers (now called Urban Financial Services Coalition) to help Blacks united and excel in this industry.
With organizations like the Black MBA’s, National Newspaper Publishers Association, National Association of Black Journalist and a local group which honors a Black professional each year – the Black Professionals Association Charitable Foundation (BPACF) – these groups benefit from it’s membership.
At these national conferences, you share things that work for you and other share things that didn’t work. Most have workshops to educate you with the latest and greatest thing in that organization at the time.
With the alliance that has formed by America’s Cable Advertising Bureau (CAB), a consortium of newspapers, radio, TV networks have united to educate potential advertisers to look out for the Black businesses.
Recently, the CAB has united the Black media for its 23 charter members that includes: BET Networks, HuffPost BlackVoices, Black Enterprise, Burrell Communications, Essence Communications, GlobalHue, Inner City Broadcasting Corporation, KJLH Radio, Johnson Publishing Company, National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, Nielsen, North Star Group, National Newspaper Publishers Association, One Solution, Radio One, TV One, Interactive One, Reach Media, Steve Harvey Radio, TheGrio, The Root, The Africa Channel, UniWorld Group, Vibe Media plus Walton Isaacson to create America’s first Black media and marketing consortium and #INTHEBLACK. CAB launched the #INTHEBLACK ad in the New York Times in the business section last week.
Now hopefully, this will get the attention of some buyers and open their eyes to advertise with these media organizations. NNPA has talked about this issue and is gung-ho on making it work.
I would say I hope it works for everyone who needs to keep their doors open everyday. The bigger newspapers always seem to get the bigger ads more than the Black papers. It’s hard to understand why, but to me it’s like the White person who said “some of my best friends are Black.”
The Call & Post Newspaper is into its 96th year and, when I look back at some of older editions, the pages were full of ads... automotive, bars, stores, and even restaurants.
Where I still believe relationships are the key to any good business deal, you still have to feel many are just overlooking the Black business. Sometimes businesses fail due to wrong management. Maybe the wrong person is doing the wrong job.
Sales come to some people natural. They can go out and talk the talk and bring in the money and then there others who sit back and talk about everybody to keep the attention off them because they can’t sell anything.
People go to school to become a lot of things in life and, with all the new diversity training they have, you would think it wouldn’t be a problem getting the green dollars coming to the Black community in 2012.
Times are hard everywhere, look what happen in New Orleans. The Times-Picayune, one of the nation’s oldest newspapers, has stopped printing seven days a week and went to three.
That was sad to hear. So, you see what I mean about the decline in advertising dollars which can also be spent online if you don’t want it in print.
Online and the social media is here, alive, and really kicking.
Most businesses have Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and of course a web site. To support these efforts, you can always change up the way you advertise with all the social media efforts.
The message from #INTHEBLACK talks about Blacks spending power which is a little more than 8 percent and national advertising buys in Black media (excluding newspaper and online media) totaled just under $2 billion in 2010, according to Nielsen, a year in which $142.5 billion was spent on ad buys overall.
#INTHEBLACK will be reaching out to a lot of the larger newspapers and magazines to get the attention of many. Sales is something that takes a lot of work and just because you been around and time deems you the senior sales rep, does not mean you have the correct skills.
With the 2012 Olympics coming up, will all the big companies like Visa and sporting companies advertise with the Black media? Maybe in their mind Blacks don’t participate in sporting events.
After interviewing Maggie Anderson and reading her book, where she shared how they survived buying Black for a year, it makes you want to put forth an effort to support Black business and in turn I am sure they will do business back.
Follow me on twitter @JimmyWadeIII
Write Wade at the Call & Post, 11800 Shaker Blvd., Cleveland, OH 44120, or e-mail him at jwade@call-post.com. Comments and questions are welcome but, because of the volume of mail, personal responses are not always possible. Please note that comments or questions may be used in a future column.
