Advertising & Marketing Issues

From classified ads to advertisements placed by large national advertisers, advertising plays an integral role in the production of newspapers. Comprising nearly 80 percent of all newspaper revenue, advertising is vitally important to the economic stability of the newspaper industry. Advertising also serves to educate consumers and empower them to make knowledgeable buying decisions. In fact, the American market economy relies on the flow of truthful information between producers and consumers.

NAA works to ensure that the ability to advertise is not jeopardized by legislative and regulatory attempts to place burdens on advertising. NAA is opposed to proposals that would place unfair and unconstitutional restrictions on advertising and actively works to protect commercial speech.

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Online newspapers have become a vital resource to the public, providing up-to-the minute news, as well as acting as venues for information specific to the communities that they serve. Editorial content is provided by most online newspapers free of charge to the reader, as the dissemination of this news and information is paid for by advertising. Unnecessary regulations creating restrictions that hinder digital advertising are a threat to the vitality of the free online newspaper. NAA actively lobbies to ensure that legislation does not contain language that would harm digital advertising.

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Two Recent Cases Address Internet Service Provider Responsibility for Fair Housing Ads Under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

In February 2006, a Chicago civil rights group filed a complaint against craigslist, Inc., alleging that the popular website published classified housing ads that indicated preference or discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, familial status or national origin, in violation of the federal Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3604(c). In 2004, the Fair Housing Councils of San Fernando Valley and San Diego filed a similar complaint with federal district court in California charging that Roommate.com, LLC, an Internet roommate locator service, violated state and federal fair housing laws for making and publishing discriminatory statements. In Craigslist , the complaint was dismissed but is on appeal. In Roommate.com, the appeals court said the service provider could be held liable, and remanded to the trial court. The different results depended in part on the degree of interactivity engaged in by the service provider.

In Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc. v. Craigslist, Inc., the complaint cited ads containing preferences or allegedly discriminatory statements. The complaint charged that the online ads discouraged home-seekers in protected classes, undermined educational efforts with the possible effect of “normalizing discrimination,” and through the anonymous email address system made it difficult or impossible to contact and educate tenants and landlords whose ads were published. On June 22, 2006, an amicus brief was filed on behalf of Amazon.com, Inc., AOL LLC, eBay Inc., Google Inc., Yahoo! Inc., Electronic Frontier Foundation, Internet Commerce Coalition, Netchoice, NetCoalition, and the U.S. Internet Service Provider Association, which cited court rulings that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C., provides interactive computer service providers with immunity from claims based on third-party content. Section 230 provides: “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” The brief argued that Congress intended Section 230 to encourage “unfettered and unregulated development of free speech on the Internet.” Contrasting online services with newspapers that “can and generally do screen the content of advertising and other third-party content that they publish,” the service providers' brief said the “key difference” is that rather than operating as a centralized publisher, interactive services “make it possible for millions of users to publish material online directly – and often simultaneously.”violated the Act.

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Telemarketers Must Avoid Abandoned Calls

Telemarketers who make interstate calls to or from consumers to induce purchase of goods or services are covered by the Federal Trade Commission's Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) — whether they make calls the old-fashioned way or use the latest automated equipment. But telemarketers who use new technologies such as "voice broadcasting" should be mindful of the provisions on "abandoned calls." With limited exceptions, the Rule prohibits telemarketers from "abandoning" any outbound telephone call. An outbound call is "abandoned" if a person answers and the telemarketer does not connect the call to a sales representative within two seconds of the person's completed greeting. Prerecorded message telemarketing, beginning with or made entirely by prerecorded message, may violate the TSR if the telemarketer is not connecting the call to a sales representative within two seconds of the person's completed greeting. Abandoned calls may also result from the use of "predictive dialers," which simultaneously call multiple consumers. While intended to maximize telemarketers' efficiency, the method may result in abandoned calls, as consumers are either hung up on or kept waiting until a representative is available. Violations are subject to civil penalties up to $11,000 per violation and other measures.

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Numerous data security breaches in recent years and fears of identity theft have led to the introduction of legislation in Congress. Over the past several legislative sessions, language has been proposed that would establish policies for data retention and would create procedures for notification when a security breach occurs. In the 110^th Congress, several bills have been introduced, including some that would require that businesses notify consumers when there is a risk that compromised personal information may be used to commit identity theft and others which require businesses to implement security programs to protect personal data.

NAA is monitoring the progress of legislation and assessing the impact of proposals on newspapers and their customer databases.

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