Advertising

M

Michael

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A local newspaper has sent me a brief email, saying that they will not be advertising my business anymore.

They have already ran two weeks of them.

Their terms and conditions state ".......they may do so without reason..............."

The obvious reason would be that I am (sublimely)offerring other advertisers a different media to advertise through (web).

Are they legally allowed to do this, especially as they have set a precedent in accepting the initial ones, and nothing has changed since?
 
If they have identified you as a competitor or potential competitor then of course they have the right (obligation to their shareholders) to refuse to carry your advertising. I thought that this would be fairly obvious.
ajapale
 
I was actually of the same thoughts, but thought I'ld ask the question in relation to the legalities.

Eg. Dunnes Stores needed to protect it's interests and increase custom but was then deemed to be acting illegally by selling potatoes below their original purchase cost.

Without this knowledge, most people would think that no law was been broken in selling goods below their cost.

I was just checking..........
 
Competition Authority

I have actually sent them a mail. Thanks
 
Hi Michael

Assuming that they are allowed to do so, could you use the issue to get publicity for your business. "Local paper refuses to accept advertising from new business".

Have you paid within your credit terms for the ads? Make sure that they have no other excuse to refuse ads.

Brendan
 
Hi Michael

I think you should contact a senior manager in the newspaper and discuss the issue with them. Try to be as friendly and conciliatory as possible. Emphasise to him that yours is a small startup business and that you're not, nor do you intend to be a competitor to their paper. If the manager is in any way clued in they will realise that you are hardly much threat to them.

Its quite likely that someone reasonably junior in their office took the decision to refuse your advert. Hopefully the manager will realise that they will gain financially from taking your ads. Tell them you intend to advertise regularly with them and that as an entrepreneur you may well have other online and offline business ventures in the pipeline in the future and that, all going well, you intend to use their newspaper to advertise these as well.

If this doesn't work, wait a week or two and contact the editor. If the newspaper is part of a group (as many now are) then try a group manager.

Whatever way it goes for you, I would shy away from confrontation. If you are reasonable with them, in the long run you will win.
 
Ads

Thanks Brendan. No they don't have any other reason, though I have politely asked for one.

They are without doubt the market leader in relation to the audience I am trying to attract. Is this an abuse of that position?

I don't want to go down the route of the publicity quite yet, as my fee-paying advertisers would definately like me to have a presence on that paper.
 
Re: Ads

Hi Michael

Unless you have bucketloads of cash and time to burn, I think it would be pointless for you to try to use competition law to further your case. Actions taken under competition law tend to be notoriously complex and difficult to prove - ie you have to prove that the other party (1) has a dominant position in the market place, and (2) is abusing it unreasonably.

While I'm no expert on competition law, I reckon (1) would be impossible to prove, as all local newspapers compete against a wide range of media - local radio, local freesheets, magazines, national press etc. Just because one is the market leader in an area doesn't make it "dominant". The "unreasonable abuse" condition is probably even more difficult to prove unless you have a lot of evidence to support your case.

In any case competition law experts don't come cheap and you would be likely to have to spend many hundreds of euro in getting even the most basic of advice from any such specialist.
 
Crossed posts

I think we crossed posts earlier Tommy. Thanks for comment. The lady in the advertising department actually forwarded me the email from the MD to her. One line, no reason. "We won't be taking ads from *****"

I politely wrote to her and asked if there was a particular reason (in case of wording etc). She politely replied saying she had forwarded my mail to MD.

Of course I know that I have no intention of following the competition law route. I was just checking here in the possible hope that someone knew of a clear-cut precedent.

Do you know the saddest thing of all? I understand where they are coming from! On the other hand, I take it as a "compliment"!
 
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