Rutabaga and Jazzman ads
Rutabaga Paddlesports and Jazzman are both longtime Isthmus advertisers.
If you are on Isthmus’ reader lists you have likely received some emails that contain sponsored messages — what we call “sponsored content,” to distinguish it from the editorial content, including stories and columns, that is created by our journalists. In January, we sent out sponsored messages on behalf of Bethke Heating & Air Conditioning, based in Verona, the Clean Lakes Alliance, a local nonprofit dedicated to improving the health of our lakes, and Beer and Cheese Fest, a locally produced festival bringing together craft breweries and area cheesemakers (Isthmus created the festival but the paper’s most recent owners now own and run it).
These emails prompted one reader to reach out to publisher Jason Joyce to express his displeasure. “Unless I missed something when I signed up for them, I didn’t see where I would be getting emails that were exclusively advertising,” he wrote in an email. “I get it that that is the way that you support the publication. I’m not interested in receiving advertising emails, so, if I have to get those in order to get the emails about what’s going on around Madison, then I’m out. If there’s a way I can do it without the advertising emails, please let me know. Thank you. We love Isthmus.”
So, bottom line, this reader loves Isthmus but would rather not see the sponsorship content that helps support it. Jason’s response to this reader was on point, so I’m sharing his response in full here:
“Thank you for this note. To put it simply (if bluntly): Without advertising, Isthmus would not exist. Contributions from our members made up just under one-third of our revenue in 2022, while advertising and sponsorships took care of 60 percent. We work almost exclusively with small, local businesses that believe in supporting community journalism. Isthmus literally stopped being a business during the pandemic because advertisers could no longer afford to buy ads with us. That’s why we’re a 501(c)(3) now, so people can support us directly and help us fulfill our mission. But there’s no way we could produce a calendar or pay the (very small) staff without advertising.
“Small businesses make Madison what it is. Straight up. This week, we have been proud to help a locally owned HVAC business, an environmental nonprofit and a popular annual beer fest get the word out to our Madison readers.
“Of all the forms of advertising and sponsorship (TV and radio commercials, newspaper ads, billboards, pop-up web ads, etc.), email advertising is the least intrusive. If you don’t want to see an ad, simply delete the email! We tell you what it is right in the subject. No trickery. We are able to bring in revenue from email advertising because 30 percent of our list opens these emails, which means 70 percent simply delete without opening, which is totally fine.”
I get how ads can be intrusive, especially on television when commercials take up half of a show’s programming time. Do I mute my TV when the My Pillow guy is hawking his pillows and duvets? You bet I do. But, as Jason notes, nearly all of our sponsors are Madison-based businesses, nonprofits, and cultural and education institutions. What they are selling, or the work they are trying to promote, is likely of interest to many of our readers. Sponsorships do, in many cases, provide news you can use. I am a fan of Jazzman, the longtime men’s store on State Street, and have bought more than a few special occasion gifts there. But I didn’t know that they were planning to open a women’s store just across the street until I was doing a final proof of the December 2021 print issue of Isthmus. We didn’t have a story on the opening — there was a promotion announcing the new store on page 9. I visited the new shop within weeks.
As I wrote in January, Isthmus is a bit of a hybrid these days. We continue in the alt-weekly tradition of covering not just news, but arts and culture as well, though we now print monthly and are a nonprofit. That means, as Jason noted in his email, we can turn to readers, donors and foundations to help support our mission. Many of our nonprofit colleagues have traditionally relied exclusively on those revenue streams to get started and keep going.
But times are changing and, according to a recent article in Adweek, it looks like other nonprofits are increasingly turning to sponsorships to support their operations as well. Drawing on data from the Institute for Nonprofit News, a group we belong to, Mark Stenberg writes that the percentage of revenue INN members generate from advertising rose from 3 percent in 2018 to 15 percent in 2022. “For local nonprofit newsrooms specifically, advertising now makes up 29 percent of their average annual revenue,” he writes.
Stenberg talks to Molly Powers, a digital media planner at Reprise Digital. She said that nonprofits offer an affordable, engaged audience “for brands looking to build trust with specific communities or underscore their company values.”
Powers noted a three-month campaign that she ran with a nonprofit publisher, using six sponsored posts. “These are brand awareness campaigns, so we were not looking for people to click to the site,” she said. “This was about showing support for local journalism and a diverse readership.”
That proved inspiration for Darren Bush, owner of Rutabaga Paddlesports, when Isthmus returned to print in August 2021 after a 17-month hiatus due to COVID. He placed a full-page sponsorship in the issue which, he acknowledges, was more about supporting Isthmus than it was about Rutabaga. It said simply, “You made it! Congratulations to Team Isthmus! We’re so glad you’re back in print. Kudos from your friends at Rutabaga Paddlesports.”
Bush says he also saw the ad as a way of communicating his values to readers. “I knew that my saying that to your readers would be a good message to send about how much I care,” he adds. “Because your readers care about you too.”
Bush began advertising in Isthmus in December 2002, one month after he purchased the business. It was one of the first things he did as the new owner, he says. Calling it advertising, though, doesn’t necessarily resonate with him. “We just want to tell our story,” says Bush. “So you figure out the best place to tell your story with organizations that align with your values.”
Part of what Bush values about Isthmus is that it provides a platform for contributions from people who live and work here. “Community voices are super important,” says Bush, who has himself written stories for Isthmus on such things as Japanese fly fishing and where to get a good slice of pie in southern Wisconsin. “That’s really all that matters. Every economy is local. Every culture is local.”
Joyce says that businesses advertise in Isthmus for different reasons. “Some use Isthmus because it works for them. It brings customers into their doors. Other businesses support Isthmus because they believe in community journalism and think that good reporting contributes to Madison being a great place to live.”
Whether advertisers are businesses, nonprofits or cultural institutions they share one thing, he adds: “They all find value in their ability to get the word out via local media. And their support allows us to be journalists.”
