DC Newspapers Oppose Legislation

DC Newspapers Oppose Council Legislation to Restrict Telephone Solicitation

Executives from five newspapers in the District of Columbia told a District Council committee July 11 that telephone solicitation is their chief means of attracting new subscribers and that the success of such solicitations refutes claims that citizens oppose such calls from their local newspaper.

The council is considering legislation that would establish a District-wide do-not-call list that would prohibit all telemarketing calls to citizens who sign on to the list.

The newspaper executives told the council’s Committee on Consumer and Regulatory Affairs that existing federal regulations already require them to maintain do-not-call lists of persons who specifically ask not to be called by the newspaper. A District-wide list like the one proposed, they noted, does not give citizens the opportunity to choose between the calls they want banned and those they want to receive.

Carol Melamed, vice president of government affairs of The Washington Post and chair of the MDDC Press Association’s Government Affairs Committee, told the council committee that nationally newspapers rely on telemarketing for nearly 60 percent of their new subscribers. At The Post, she said, about 40,000 people a year subscribe via telemarketing.

The Washington Times, is even more dependent than most papers upon telemarketing, said Richard H. Amberg, Jr., vice president and general manager of The Times and chair of MDDC’s Circulation Committee. "It represents more than 90 percent of our circulation sales," he said.

We do not believe that the vast majority of people who may object to many forms of telemarketing object at all to offers from their local newspapers," Amberg told the council. "And for the very few who do object, simply saying so once ends the problem" because of the federal regulations.

Denise Rolark Barnes, publisher of The Washington Informer, said her paper has used telemarketing campaigns on two different occasions and strongly believes that their use by local newspapers should not be impeded. Edgar Brookins, general manager of The Afro-American Newspaper in Washington stressed the importance of such programs in contributing toward reaching more readers for a more informed citizenry.

Tom Schmidt, president of Carroll Publishing Co. and president-elect of MDDC, said one of his company’s papers, The Catholic Standard, makes subscription sales in the range of 32 to 41 percent of all outbound calls. "This suggests to us that we are calling a very receptive audience," he said.

Councilmember Sharon Ambrose, chair of the committee considering the bill, noted that the council would be in summer recess from July 15 to September 15. The telemarketing bill would be considered by the committee sometime in the fall, she said.