STOP CHAMBER AD SALES AND DAMAGE TO LOCAL MEDIA COMPANIES
April 10, 2015
TO: Mayor David Bennett and Members of the Hilton Head Island Town Council
FROM: Owners/Managers of Hilton Head Island/Beaufort County Media Companies
RE: ADVERTISING SALES BY GREATER HILTON HEAD ISLAND-BLUFFTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND VISITOR & CONVENTION BUREAU
Mr. Mayor and Members of the Hilton Head Island Town Council:
We, the undersigned owners and managers of Hilton Head Island/Beaufort County local media companies, are aware that you are currently developing a first-ever contract with the Greater Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce and Visitor & Convention Bureau that will dictate the terms and conditions of its operations going forward as a publicly-funded Destination Marketing Organization (DMO).
For several years, as you know, we have been objecting to the Chamber's increasingly aggressive sales of local advertising, which allows them as a nonprofit entity funded by tax dollars to compete unfairly with our for-profit companies, which employ local people and pay corporate taxes, by siphoning an ever-increasing amount from the local ad revenue pool.
The damage to our companies, which has already been significant, will now be particularly egregious in light of the Chamber's current plans to sell advertising on the new mobile app the Town paid to develop.
Therefore, we are hereby requesting that a specific provision be included in the new Chamber contract that orders it to cease all advertising sales and thereby stops them from harming our enterprises.
Thank you.
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