Debra Epstein is in charge of sales and research at both KISS-FM and Hot 97. She agrees that many advertisers and their ad agencies put their prejudices before good business sense. The hardest is trying to sell spots for Internet users and proving that black people do use computers. I use the Internet at work all day and not at home, but I'm not black. Caldwell is all too familiar with the lack of advertising dollars coming into black magazines.
Advertising agencies have to make the argument to their clients that black media can be competitive.
Ad agencies are proficient at target marketing, said Lynette Johnson, a media buyer for McCann-Erickson. Black publishers blame modest advertising revenue for the high cover prices they say they have to charge just to stay afloat. They believe media planners are oblivious to the spending power and diverse readership of black magazines. According to Caldwell, another contributing factor to the paucity of advertising dollars spent with black outlets is the white-orientation of both syndicated research, such as the Nielson ratings, and of the advertising industry in general. Although Black Enterprise has had its problems attracting large corporate advertisers, it still lists Merrill Lynch , BMW , Delta Airlines , Marriott Hotels , and Motorola among those that have placed ads in the magazine.