Newspaper executives routinely exaggerate circulation numbers. They fib about pass along rates (how many people handle a single copy of a newspaper). Newspapers have a well deserved reputation of less than honest reporting when it comes to their own financial and circulation numbers.

To counter this decades-long problem in the publishing industry, according to a piece published in Media Week, a pair of very powerful U.S. print media buyers who control, between them, over $2 billion dollars in annual print advertising money, recently made a demand of some of the highest circulation newspapers in the United States: guarantee your circulation. The Wall Street Journal already guarantees its circulation, and in response to the demand, both The New York Times and USA Today capitulated. AnnArbor.com doesn’t guarantee circulation. The print rate card contains no circulation numbers, and contains the claim that AnnArbor.com “reaches” 69 percent of all adults in Washtenaw County (275,617 individuals, according to the U.S. Census Bureau data).

They tell you. You believe them and, if you’re an advertiser, pay your money. It would appear that’s how many things work at AnnArbor.com. They tell you. You’re supposed to believe them.

AnnArbor.com took a public relations shellacking after executives there got rid of 14 staffers, mostly people in the newsroom, leaving the site with only about one-third of the staff that was employed by the Ann Arbor News before it closed. The public explanation, posted to the site two weeks after the fact, was a repetition/expansion of the one AA.com’s Kontent King Tony Dearing had posted in a comment thread on his site two weeks earlier.

Tony Dearing, VP Laurel Champion and CEO Matt Kraner told the public that, in essence, AnnArbor.com was making cuts so as to better focus on hard news and local news.

The fact that the three Musketeers in charge did not assign a reporter to do a write-up about the cuts is completely out of step with what industry standards dictate, and what has been done at other news companies large and small. Yes, it would be embarrassing to explain for publication why layoffs were necessary. However, the lack of transparency is disturbing. AnnArbor.com’s executives behaved as though hiding information that is customarily openly reported is what’s done. The opposite, of course, is true.

Newspapers rely on the public trust.

AnnArbor.com’s disingenuous response in (or lack thereof) concerning the company’s own obvious challenges breached the public’s trust in a serious way. That may have dawned on Dearing, Champion and Kraner, and prompted the three of them to issue a joint statement apologizing for handling the announcement of the layoffs badly. Someone who has worked with Tony Dearing wrote on another blog in response to a post about the layoffs/cuts, that Dearing is a “spinmeister.”

The apology was pure spin, not a news story. It was 1,500 words of contrition and zero hard news.

AnnArbor.com is dealing with the public relations fallout precipitated by the layoffs with an advertising campaign.

The ad campaign’s tagline is this: “35 staff journalists. 407 years of experience.”

It’s clever, and I like the message.

The only problem is that AnnArbor.com doesn’t have 35 staff journalists. It doesn’t have 30 staff journalists, or even 25 staff journalists.

After the layoffs, AnnArbor.com was left with 21 newsroom staffers listed on its masthead/staff directory, including Dearing, who writes editorials, but does not cover a regular beat, and Steve Pepple, who oversees production of the print product and does news compilations now and again. That leaves AnnArbor.com with 19 staff journalists listed on the masthead, along with two photographers/videographers.

So where’d they get “35 staff journalists?” On April 12, 2011 I sent the following email to David Martel, who is the Marketing Director at AnnArbor.com:

Mr. Martel,

Someone sent me a photo of an advertising campaign AnnArbor.com is running. The tagline is: “35 staff journalists. 407 years of experience.”

However, can you help me understand where the 35 number comes from, please? On the masthead/staff directory, there are 21 staff journalists (including Steve P. and Tony D., neither of whom cover a regular beat, as it were). That leaves 19 staff journalists listed as staff journalists. Does the 35 include freelancers and/or part-timers? Paid community contributors? Is the staff directory out of date or incomplete?

Thanks.

No answer.

Anyone in publishing (or the IRS) will tell you that freelancers are not on staff (though part-timers may be, of course). If the “35 staff journalists” includes part-time staffers, why aren’t the part-timers listed in the staff directory?

As an aside, I chanced across a media blog that explored the idea that contributors who produce content free of charge for use on sites such as AnnArbor.com could be nabbed by the IRS and charged taxes on the “donations” of intellectual property. It’s an interesting thought. After all, how can the content produced by unpaid writers be worth nothing when AnnArbor.com collects ad revenue by “selling” the materials? Media companies like AnnArbor.com package, license and sell what citizen journalists provide free of charge. How many contributors would AnnArbor.com have if the individuals had to pay income taxes to write for the news site?

AnnArbor.com inflated the number of “staff journalists” by 65 percent. Obviously, the trio in charge are trying desperately to calm the collective “community” jitters caused by the layoffs and defection of a trio of experienced staffers to the Detroit Free Press. With a small reporting staff, can AnnArbor.com cover the city’s news stories, investigate, follow up? It’s a real question, a valid concern expressed by the site’s readers over and again since the layoffs.

It’s mind-boggling that Tony Dearing, Laurel Champion and Matt Kraner answered with an advertising campaign built on misinformation. In fact, one might argue that the ad, which includes a deceptive statement, and is being used to sell the site to consumers, breaks Michigan’s Truth in Advertising law.

This week’s A2Politico Weekly Whopper Goes to AnnArbor.com and its Marketing Director David Martel.