Last week, someone told me that we came across as “very self serving” after we asked for some advertising dollars, that we were “really just after money.”
Well, I thought about that for a while.
Yes, we are after money. This newspaper is a business, and it survives off of advertising dollars provided by other businesses and people in the region.
We provide the essential service of a trustworthy method of communication with your neighbours. When you buy an advertisement, you are buying a voice to let people know what’s going on with your company, organization or family.
But there are other intangible services that we provide with that advertisement, that allow businesses to thrive in the community.
Namely, we monitor your democracy and record the first draft of history, all while supporting this community however we can.
In an ideal world, reporters would work for free and give you all the photos, stories and editorial content you need. All by themselves, the presses would run and the phones would answer. Maybe your governments would even hold themselves accountable for their own actions.
I wouldn’t have to deal with silly things like budgets, financial statements and rate sheets – I could devote myself wholeheartedly to the news and give everyone all the advertising space they needed for nothing.
But then the employees here and I wouldn’t have shelter. Food. Water. Heat. You know, the essentials for living.
Facebook advertising is cheaper, you say?
Sure. Facebook provides a link to some members of the community. Not all, but some. It also reads more of your personal data than you can imagine and builds its advertising strategies on that data – you know, to get your money, eventually. It has run psychological tests on you without your knowledge or permission, too.
How about Facebook’s “support” for democracy? Let’s talk about the fact that Russian-backed Facebook posts and advertisements were shown to more than 100 million Americans during the United States’ last election season, according to current estimates.
Google, one of our other competitors these days, is not innocent, either. The Goliath also sold ads that have suspicious Russian ties, according to information coming out in an inquiry into interference in the 2016 American election.
The Athabasca Advocate may be after advertising money, but we at least have standards – I can guarantee you that no Russian spies bought ads in our paper interfering in our municipal elections.
When’s the last time either of these tech companies supported a community event here in Athabasca? It’s not like you see a “Gold Sponsor” sign at the Magnificent River Rats Festival with the rainbow G or blue F. But we’re there, alongside your local radio station, too.
No, you may not like all of the articles in the Athabasca Advocate. You may vehemently disagree with some of the things that are said here.
But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – it’s your newspaper. My door is open. You can also write letters, and we’ll make sure that you don’t say anything libellous, which could get us both in trouble. We’ll cover that volleyball tournament and those lunches with seniors. We’ll go to all of those town, county and village council meetings you don’t want attend.
And we’ll continue to do our best to make sure these pages are an accurate representation of your community.
