Allow me a moment to rant about media. Especially here in Hooterville. Small town media, just like Fox and CNN, can pick and choose and decide the tone. It really pisses me off. So it goes with our slowly dissipating newspaper, The Daily Disappointment, who highlight their owners favorite causes and politics and give credit where none is due. Like the non-story about the newly hired marketing woman with thick ankles, bad hair and sensible shoes who declared an increase in numbers for a government agency with her strategic television efforts. EXCUSE ME? We had them using television two years before she ever showed up. Along with a new web site, and a new positioning statement, and a new event catalog. Bottom line is she had nothing to do with it. So much for investigative, or relevant, journalism. (Maybe it’s because we buy very little local newspaper advertising.)
In Hooterville, there’s a LOT of mediocre media. The little community web sites that crop up under the guise of local news. They try to compete with the newspaper, TV and radio stations. Funded by small thinking Tea Partiers who are busy being righteous, God and Country conservatives, taking low level pot shots at the Mayor, county and state government.
There are VERY bad and WAY TOO MANY radio stations. Announcers with speech impediments. Dead air. Many are owned/funded by small thinking Tea Partiers who are busy being righteous, God and Country conservatives, taking low level pot shots at the Mayor, county and state government.
We have an active cable sales force and two aggressive networks (CBS and NBC) in Hooterville, with News Anchors who everyone knows too much about. The Old Drunk Guy at 6 o’clock. The young bimbo girls with coiffed curls and glossy lips who nod and gush knowingly and have nothing meaningful to say. And smug, self-assured, pushy gals selling 30 second spots when they should buy a gym membership. Every one is Number One.
And last but not least, there are Billboards, Yellow Pages, Area Wide Maps, Church Bulletins, Grocery Store Kiosks, Pharmacy Bags, Sides of Trash Cans Sponsored by the Rotary, Bus Benches, Sides of City Buses, Space on the Chamber Web Site, Flyers in the Chamber Newsletter, ads in the Charity Event Program, the Community Theater Program, the High School Sports Program, on the fence at Little League/High School/College Ball Field, the weekly farm town newspapers, ads on placemats at the local pizza/taco/fried chicken place, the side of a Race car….you get the idea.
Not one news outlet here can afford to deliver any unbiased delivery of factual information because they might piss off their friend/neighbor/customer. Because it’s a small town and they all play golf at the same country club. Gee, Happy Monday.
Tags: advertising, bad reporting, local media, media, media bias, newspapers, radio stations, self promotion, small town media, TV news
adchick 
February 8, 2010 at 8:24 pm
So… how does one get a business message out, locally? Blanket the obvious outlets, or target one or another — or blanket the small media? Or just be as ubiquitous as possible?
Or drop advertising dollars and spend on marketing? Networking, give-aways, public speaking, volunteering, selling crack?
February 8, 2010 at 11:02 pm
From what you’re saying, sounds like the best option is to run :30 spots on the Andy Griffith Show reruns.
February 9, 2010 at 12:33 am
Adchick, you’re hilarious as usual, but do you really believe that most big towns are any more sophisticated? Trust me, Phoenix is all of the things you describe…writ large. And frankly, the Daily Disappointment is probably a lot more interesting than the Arizona Repugnant (which is jammed with all the same AP/Reuters feeds that you already read on the net).