If Mainstream Media Allowed Marijuana Advertising They Wouldn’t Be Broke
Many mainstream media outlets are struggling financially. For so many decades media outlets relied on advertising dollars that came with large readerships. As those readers started to get their information from free outlets on the internet, the advertising dollars for traditional media outlets started to dwindle, and will likely to continue to do so into the future. Traditional media is dying. The days of print and cable’s stranglehold on information is a thing of the past, yet many outlets try to cling to the old ways of banning marijuana advertising.
Marijuana advertising has helped save many small media outlets from dying. To quote The New York Times, “few predicted this: that it would be a boon for local newspapers looking for ways to cope with the effects of the recession and the flight of advertising – especially classified listings – to Web sites like Craigslist.” The article went on to say, ““Medical marijuana has been a revenue blessing over and above what we anticipated,” said John Weiss, the founder and publisher of The Independent, a free weekly. “This wasn’t in our marketing plan a year ago, and now it is about 10 percent of our paper’s revenue.””
In an article out of Colorado, “Colorado’s largest daily newspaper, the Denver Post started running medical marijuana ads in late August. The ads don’t generate a lot of money, but like the industry, there’s room for growth, according to Kirk MacDonald, the executive vice president for advertising, marketing and digital sales.”
Marijuana based advertising is possibly the most untapped source of media revenue on the planet. It’s not just dispensaries. Headshops, grow stores, clothing companies, inventions, etc. These are all people and companies that want to advertise their product or service, but have a hard time doing so in mainstream media. If it works so well at the local level, imagine what such advertising would do for large media outlets that are failing? As a blog owner who markets to such potential clients, I personally hope that large media outlets continue to stick their head in the sand so people like me can fill the void and make money while helping talented people!
Mainstream media’s iron grip on information throughout the years combined with their unwillingness to support marijuana reform was a huge problem in the past. However, those days are numbered, as marijuana activists and industry members have a new way to advertise – social media. Marijuana industry members would love to advertise with big outlets, but those outlets are far from the only game in town. Rather than try to suck up to advertising executives at the big news station in town, marijuana businesses can just start a Facebook and Twitter account and start a blog. It’s not as effective as advertising on television, but it also doesn’t require the hassle. The window of opportunity for large media outlets to make money off of marijuana based advertising is getting smaller everyday.
Do you have advertising in your local media outlet for medical marijuana? If so, do you support them more than other outlets as a result? I would tell all TWB readers to only support media outlets that support marijuana reform, but that’s hard since there aren’t that many in a lot of parts of the world. However, I would encourage readers to get their news from online sources that support marijuana reform. If you need help finding one in your area, let me know. Are you a business that has had advertising problems with large media outlets? How have you dealt with it? Have you gone to smaller media outlets, or tried going online? Have you tried to just handle all of your advertising on your own? Please put your comments below.
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