Wal-Mart says advertising tests in rural papers didn't pay off, so no more ads

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which many rural newspapers say has made life hard for them, has decided not to expand its local newspaper advertising after an experiment in Missouri and Oklahoma "showed the expense is not justified" the company said yesterday, reports The Associated Press.

The test "had been closely watched by publishers who complained publicly last year that Wal-Mart sought free publicity from their newspapers but refused to buy ads . . . while driving out local businesses that had been mainstays," AP wrote.

After complaints from the National Newspaper Association, a group dominated by weekly papers, "Wal-Mart agreed to run a test in the holiday shopping season," placing a full-page, four-color ad for electronic items in 336 papers, AP wrote. "It did increase product sales, but our margins are so thin that we didn't even come close to offsetting the cost of the ads," spokeswoman Mona Williams told AP. Mike Buffington, immediate past president of NNA, said Wal-Mart told him likewise.

Buffington pressed Wal-Mart on the issue as president, in the year ending Oct. 1, and remained point man with the company. Buffington, co-publisher of Jefferson, Ga.-based MainStreet Newspapers Inc., told AP "A one-time test is probably not a true way to evaluate community newspapers. In fact, we understand they had quite a bump in sales. But the advertising itself, the full-page color ads, were expensive and they were advertising loss-leader type items." Wal-Mart wouldn't say how much the ads cost.

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