LAKEPORT >> In an effort to attract tourism from the northern Bay Area, the Lake County Board of Supervisors approved an advertising contract with the company that owns the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat at its regular meeting on Tuesday.
The deal — worth a maximum of $60,775 — purchases print and digital advertising space in Sonoma Media Investments’ multiple publications, which according to the company’s presentation, have a weekly penetration of more than 300,000 adults and approximately 15.1 million total page views a month.
“I’m excited about this,” District 4 Supervisor Anthony Farrington said. “I do think buying space in print circulation is important.”
To marketing executive Becca Pate, SMI’s goal is to reach the “day trippers” and weekend tourists. In the presentation, she claimed that 57 percent of North Bay adults take day vacations and of those short-stay tourists their outlets reach 95 percent.
The move also comes at a time when relations between the county and the Press-Democrat have recently soured due to allegedly unbalanced stories that create a negative portrayal of the region.
According to chief revenue officer Karleen Arnink-Pate, SMI is committed to improving that relationship and the county’s image to its audiences without impacting editorial. Some steps have already been taken including a meeting at the paper’s headquarters with members of the Lake County Marketing Program (LCMP) and local business owners.
“Although I cannot promise that nothing negative will ever be written about Lake County again, I think opening up the communication and being very direct about the concerns is a good start,” Arnink-Pate said.
However, some members of the public were wary of the county giving its tax dollars to the media company.
One of those was John Jensen, co-owner of the online-only publication Lake County News. He was concerned that this money would lead to “editorial influence,” paying for more balanced stories.
“That’s not something that should be paid for because that implies extortion,” Jensen said, accusing the paper of crossing the ethical line between advertising an editorial. “We’d very much like to see this pulled.”
These concerns were in addition to the dismay he expressed toward the board for not seeking other offers in a request for proposal (RFP), especially from his organization. According to Jensen, Lake County News has approached the LCMP with similar advertising opportunities but claimed to receive only “lip service.”
“We’ve been offering digital marketing assistance to the county for the last few years… but have not heard anything happen about it,” he added. “[SMI] may be a good fit, but you’re not the only fit.”
Arnink-Pate responded to his accusations and assured those present that their services are strictly advertising in the form of quarterly advertorial inlets and sponsored web articles similar to those the county purchased from the San Francisco Chronicle. The strategy is called native advertising and is used by many high-profile media outlets.
Farrington said he would like to look into local vendors but disagreed with Jensen’s claim to have an RFP.
“I can’t image us going to RFP every single time we’re looking to bring in another vendor to help mass market the county. We’d be here for days and never get anything done,” the supervisor said. “I also think the [Press-Democrat} has another circulation market base that Lake County News can’t reach out to.”
Additional concerns were brought up by District 3 Supervisor Jim Steele, who was worried that tourists would be disappointed and tricked if they were directed to blighted areas.
“There are also a lot of bad experiences to be had,” Jim Steele said. “We need to be very honest about those problems and direct those people to the right venues…”
In response, county public information officer Jill Ruzicka and Arinink-Pate told the board that the LCMP would have ultimate control over the messages and images sent to readers.
The board voted unanimously, 4-0 in favor of the contract. District 1 Supervisor Jim Comstock was absent from the meeting.
