Black-owned media seeking more advertising dollars from Democrats

Jeff Kunerth
Orlando Sentinel
(September 23, 2008) A black-owned radio station in Daytona Beach began running ads Monday criticizing the Democratic Party for ignoring black voters in the first salvo of a long-simmering dispute between the black press and Barack Obama's campaign.

Black-owned radio stations and newspapers have complained to the Florida Democratic Party about the dearth of political ads placed in black-owned media. A lack of response prompted the radio ads on 1590 AM (WPUL), said Charles W. Cherry II, publisher of The Florida Courier, a statewide black newspaper.

"If you want to win by getting black people to vote in the state of Florida, you must actively engage the black community's political culture. A large part of this culture is black-owned media," said Cherry, whose family owns 11 radio stations and two newspapers, including The Daytona Times.

Cherry said black media owners will meet today to discuss when to start running the ads statewide.

Leonard Joseph, executive director of the Florida Democratic Party, said the party and the campaign have advertised in black media in recent weeks and plan to do more.

"We will continue to advertise in minority-owned outlets between now and the end of the election," he said.

Newspaper ads planned for next week take the national Democratic Party to task for spending $20 million on Hispanic-voter outreach nationally and $6.5 million in Florida political ads but putting very little money into black media in Florida.

The black press' frustration with the Obama campaign is the continuation of hard feelings that date to previous Democratic presidential candidates who failed to funnel media dollars into black-owned media, said Keith Longmore, publisher of the Pine Hills-based West Orlando News.

"The Florida Democratic Party has a history of neglecting the black folks in how it spends its marketing dollars," Longmore said.

Democrats are content to draw 85 percent to 92 percent of the black vote, Cherry said, but for Obama to win Florida, he needs to significantly raise the number of black voters. To do that, he said, Democrats must engage not only the black media, but also black community-based organizations.

The Obama campaign said it has worked extensively in black communities to register voters. It opened campaign offices in black neighborhoods, visited black barbershops and beauty salons, held neighborhood barbecues and sent voter-information press kits to black media outlets.

"The Obama campaign has an extensive outreach effort throughout the state of Florida, including the African-American community, which we will continue to drive through Election Day," said Adora Andy, Obama's Florida regional communications director.

Joseph said the party has spent a great deal of manpower registering black voters and urging them to vote early or by absentee ballot.


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