CHAPTER 10: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION(S) & RECOMMENDATIONS 199-208
2.7: Advertising Defined
2.7.1: Advertising as a Funding Source
As the pivotal force in the operations of contemporary mass media, advertising provides the chunk of revenue for newspapers, magazine, radio and television (Croteau and Hoynes, 1997:54). It is for this reason that many businesses have invested heavily. Ghana, for instance, is experiencing an increase in advertising campaigns on a large scale witnessed by the plethora of huge billboards and the repainting (branding) of private buildings as advertising hoardings around the environs of Accra (Commonwealth Network, 2012) and many parts of the country.
Thus, Ghana‟s advertising is progressing above the traditional avenues such as newspapers, radio and billboards to television and World Wide Web pages (Debrah, 2002:504). In spite of this score, it appears that most private print media function on a budget that is insufficient and a portion of newspapers have low circulation figures and hustle to survive mainly on sales from subscription and newsstands (Smith and Temin, 2001:166; cf Arthur, 2010:215). It is an undisputable fact that advertisement is the life-blood of all media houses thus advertisers are those who provide the main revenue streams (Lando, 2013:28). In the broadcast media, advertisers buy airtime from broadcasters to place advertisements for their products or brands and are a major source of revenue for broadcasters (Byrd-Bredbenner, 2002; Kotz and Story, 1994; Kunkel and Gantz, 1992; cited in Osei-Hwere, 2011:74). However, there are worries as to how well the media can perform its watchdog role while at the same time depending on maximising revenues from external sources in order to survive. Media companies attract advertising only if they are able to have wide coverage and provide content that is relevant to their target audiences (Musa, 1996:85-6). However, the questions that arise are: Why should media houses suffocate financially if they are not able to tap into advertising revenue? Why must
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media houses over-rely on advertising revenue? Are media houses diversifying their operations in terms of revenue generation sources beyond the media industry? In attempts to counteract the above state of affairs, media houses have sought to increase sales (subscription) with the objective of raising revenue which is not glued to advertising. However, newspaper and magazine sales cannot sustain and ensure the continuous existence of media houses without advertising revenues (Musa, 1996:85-6). Media houses are not able to travel on reporting missions and often do so through corporate sponsorship because they do not have the money to embark on such trips, thus making them stand the risk of presenting skewed stories (Schiffrin, 2010). In Sierra Leone for instance, journalists in print media are suffocating, chiefly through a lack of financial resources as a consequence of infinitesimal revenue from advertising and sales.
True, there are other main problems faced by the press in Sierra Leone (as indeed with the press across Africa), which include regulatory restraints, lack of distribution and infrastructural facilities, illiteracy, poor journalistic practices, lack of technologies and electricity (Wahl- Jorgensen & Cole, 2010: 2).
Sight should not be lost of the fact that advertisers (businesses) have aspirations and tend to be affiliated to particular political parties. For fear of withdrawing advertising contracts, media houses may be unable to report exact stories but are compelled to tow the advertiser‟s line labelling them as less than impartial (Lando, 2013:28-29). Furthermore, media‟s reliance on advertising revenues can make them extremely susceptible to the fortunes of business profits and recession (Brierley, 2002:83; McQuail, 2000:195). This suggests that the principle of we swim together and drown together will be at work, --- which is not good for the media institution if it is to assume the status of an independent entity. It is on this basis that Herd (1952) referred to Francis Williams as saying:
The dangerous dependence of newspapers on advertising has often been the theme of newspaper reformers – usually from outside it ranks. But the daily press would not have come into existence as a force in public and social life if it had not been for the need of men of commerce to advertise (Herd, 1952:65).
Clearly, danger looms with regard to the independence of the newspaper industry, and it is also clear that the search for other acceptable substitute of sourcing funds must continue: “[f]inancial support, because we chose to draw our financial backing from industry itself” (Morgan,
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1989:148). This points to the fact that the need to diversify operations beyond the media industry to generate substantial revenue is imperative if the industry is to remain independent. Moreover, Brierley cautioned, the economic dependence of the media on advertising affects it in various means because in as much as it brings marginal profits to owners of media, it also comes with marginal costs. Consider the exorbitant cost of gaining advertising contracts to publish to a new medium: “[h]iring a sales force, advertising to advertisers in trade press, producing documents such as media packs and running conferences and exhibitions and awards as well as a separate production to produce the ads – these are substantial cost to media owners” (2002:81). In this respect, writing on the relationship between the press and advertising in the nineteenth century, Ivon Asquith (1975:721) noted that
Since sales were inadequate to cover the costs of producing a paper, it was the growing income from advertising which provided the material base for the change of attitude from subservience to independence. The chief methods by which governments could influence the press – a direct subsidy, official advertisements, and priority of intelligence – were rendered less effective because proprietors could afford to do without them (Asquith, 1975:721).
Apparently, it was through the increase of newspaper returns obtained mainly from advertising that enabled newspapers to liberate themselves from the state and party subsidies and develop an independent institution for dissemination of news to emerge as the Fourth Estate (Curran, 2002:79). However, the very funding source (advertising) that liberated the press now seems to be the one being able to manipulate their reporting. The pressure that aggravates the restrictions of the media as fourth estate is traced to the search for revenue as a crucial means of survival. This pressure from the commercial front on the press has positioned the media institution to stick to formats of “words and images, themes and orientation and general focus”, that have gained acceptance by the readers (Musa, 1996:85-86; Anderson and Gabszewicz, 2005:4). Thus, as long as the Guardian or New Nigeria remains relevant to their target readers, advertisers get convinced to invest and sell widely.
These concerns have led to the realisation that just as the press in Africa had to commit itself to the struggle against colonialism; it now actively has to commit itself to maintaining its
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independence in the face of commercialisation. Opuamie-Ngoa (2010:10-11) noted, “a global village disease called profit motive derived from the economic logic of diversification and the creation of giant industrial concerns has infected the traditional watchdog role of the media”. In a similar vein, Faringer (1991:41) warned: “[e]ven today, aspiring African newspaper entrepreneurs frequently find that they must not only provide the financial security for their ventures, but also have to ensure their political credit-worthiness” if they are to surface in the market. Thus, almost all media houses operate as commercial bodies with the sole objective of amassing profits for its proprietors or shareholders. This sets the ground for media appraisal to be undertaken based on the level of sales and advertising returns by stakeholders instead of how the public positions media, based on independence, diversity and creativity (Croteau and Hoynes, 2001:1). Due to this state of affairs, “[i]n the marketplace approach, the people have no direct authority over the press; its power is indirect and largely financial. Authority lies with the state or the media itself – or in a more limited and indirect way, in the market system where the people themselves exercise considerable power as they operate through the market” (Merrill, 1989:21- 22). The contradictory situation in which the media finds itself is succinctly summarised by Everette Dennis (1989:189) who concluded
the mass media are different than other businesses. To survive, they must, of course, be commercially successful, but they are also expected to defend the public interest. They are thus both profit-making enterprises and quasi-public interest organisations. How these priorities are sorted out depends on the owners of the media and their employees. Henry Luce, for example, has been paraphrased as saying: “first the nickel, then the news”.
Others speak first of the free flow of information and freedom of expression and second of the necessity of advertising and other revenue producing activities.