Lisa Sygutek, publisher of the Crowsnest Pass Herald, went before Council on Tuesday, November 2 to express concerns about municipal advertising in local media.
The main point of the presentation was to note discontent with council requiring the two local newspaper outlets, The Pass Herald and
The Pass Promoter to bid against one another for municipal advertising, and that a minimum commitment of $40,000 should be spent in either outlet.
“The fact is, $40,000 a year for advertising in your local media is not a ridiculous cost,” said Sygutek.
Through extensive research about the costs of advertising in other newspapers around the province, Sygutek presented statistics for seven communities with one newspaper.
The average cost of municipal advertising in these communities, three of which current municipal Chief Administrative Officer Gordon Lundy worked for in the past, was found to be $46,400, well above the proposed advertising budget put forward by Sygutek.
She also presented findings for communities with two newspapers, the average of which was $51,500 per paper, considerably higher than the proposed commitment for the Crowsnest Pass.
She then noted that of the $18 million municipal budget, $40,000 dollars would account for only 0.2 per cent of the total, costing each registered voter $6.95 per year to have municipal advertising in each paper.
