Wal-Mart, stung by criticism of its labor practices, expansion plans and other business tactics, is turning to public radio, public television and even journalists in training to try to improve its image.
So far this year, the company has become a sponsor on National Public Radio, where recorded messages promote its stores. It has underwritten a popular talk show, "Tavis Smiley," accompanied by similar promotional messages, on a public television station in California.
PHOTO: REUTERS
And earlier this month, Wal-Mart announced plans to award US$500,000 in scholarships to minority students at journalism programs around the country, including Howard University, University of Southern California and Columbia University.
Wal-Mart has not supported any of those organizations in the past. But as the company outgrows its rural roots and moves into suburbs and cities, it is encountering more resistance from people whose traditions and values may be different from those of Wal-Mart's historic customers.
The company has been faulted for its selective approach toward the publications that it sells, which has included banning three men's magazines and ordering plastic covers to conceal what it considered "uncomfortable" headlines on several women's titles, including Glamour and Redbook. It has refused to sell music albums with what it deems offensive lyrics, and manufacturers acknowledge producing sanitized versions of popular CDs to maintain a presence in the giant retailer's stores.
Mona Williams, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, said the journalism scholarships were "a first of their kind" for the retailer, and came about because of the recent publicity around its business practices.
"We've really been in the spotlight and I think that's made us especially sensitive to the need for balanced coverage," Williams said. "It doesn't matter if the subject is Wal-Mart or something else. You just aren't going to have that unless different perspectives are represented." Without diversity, she added, "the result can be narrower thinking as news events are presented to the public."
Influencing that presentation may be at the heart of the effort, although Williams said there was "no hidden agenda here" and added that it probably would have been done even if Wal-Mart had not come under scrutiny.
John Siegenthaler, founder of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, said, "Wal-Mart is doing what most corporations do: When they feel pain, they try to salve the wound." He predicted that "they may get less out of it than they expect to," but he added that "if it helps minority journalism, I hope they salve it with more than half a million dollars."
As for public radio, Williams said the company sought the demographic that National Public Radio listeners represent. The goal is to "reach community leaders and help them understand the value that we bring to their areas."
"We want those folks to know that having a Wal-Mart in their town is a good thing," she said.
A spokeswoman for NPR, Jenny Lawhorn, said its audience consisted of "intelligent and well-educated people" who "tend to be business leaders and tend to be engaged in the civic process." According to a recent survey, about 56 percent of them are Wal-Mart shoppers, she said, compared with 66 percent of the general population.
Wooing community leaders fits well into Wal-Mart's plans. The company has stumbled in recent months against opposition to its stores. In April, its effort to win voter support for a store in the Inglewood, California, suburb of Los Angeles was defeated after the company took the unusual step of putting the issue on the ballot. An attempt to build a store in Chicago was rejected, although a second store was approved, while plans to open a store in downtown New Orleans have been slowed by opposition as well.
The company has also been criticized by labor unions, which say Wal-Mart fights their organizing efforts. In California, unionized supermarket workers staged a lengthy strike earlier this year seeking benefits that stores said they could not afford because they needed to compete with Wal-Mart.
Neither Wal-Mart nor NPR would reveal what it pays as an NPR sponsor. The contract began Feb. 16 and extends until January. Total corporate financing is expected to reach US$30 million this year, Lawhorn said. As part of its NPR arrangement, Wal-Mart is described several ways when it is mentioned as an underwriter on the air. The descriptions include the following: "Wal-Mart. Providing jobs and opportunities for millions of Americans of all ages and all walks of life." Another says the company is "bringing communities job opportunities."
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