ADVERTISING IN BLACK MAGAZINES AIN'T WORTH IT? Every year, the NAACP sends out a survey to big corporations asking what percentage of their advertising budget is used in black-owned media. The corporations get a grade — an F, if they don't participate — based on their relationship with black-owned businesses. The companies dread it, but they say advertising in black-owned media is not cost-effective.

"All things being equal, we'd have no problem supporting" black-owned media, said [an anonymous chief marketing officer for a major brand], but "a lot of the true African-American owned media companies are small and very decentralized. That doesn't fit our strategy of needing to have a national reach. We have looked at some of the options, but the delivery is so small in relation to cost it doesn't fit our strategy."

[AA]