Wal-Mart says newspapers are no good

Wal-Mart has long avoided using newspapers, but in the face of criticism from the press ran a test in the Christmas season last year. "It placed a full-page color ad for its electronics department in 336 smaller papers in Missouri and Oklahoma between Nov. 30 and Dec. 6."

According to Wal-Mart, the slight bump in sales from the ads was insufficient to pay for their cost.

"Our test showed that it did increase product sales but our margins are so thin that we didn't even come close to offsetting the cost of the ads ..."

While the newsies are, justifiably, saying that you can't prove much from a single insertion, they might more justifiably be asking themselves what it says about their medium that Wal-Mart has prospered so mightily while ignoring them.