By Robert Franklin
Star Tribune
Published: 11/5/2006
Excerpt:
It's been a common complaint for years: Political candidates spend a
lot of money on TV and radio ads but expect newspapers to give them
publicity for free.
Jake
Benson has done something about that: The owner-publisher-editor of
northern Minnesota's Proctor Journal has started charging 5 cents a
word for letters to the editor that endorse candidates.
"After
years of having candidates drop by the office, news release in hand but
no ads, I just got tired of spending space and time and not getting any
sort of advertising and then getting barraged with last-minute letters
to the editor supporting issues and candidates," said Benson, whose
100-year-old weekly paper has a circulation of about 1,950.
Many of the letters are generated by the campaigns themselves, he said. ...
... Bob Steele, a well-known media ethics expert at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., calls the idea troubling.
"I
believe the letters to the editor forum is a valuable one for the
public to express thoughts and ideas and concerns," he said.
