Cal Poly food provider cuts Mustang News ads after critical story

Cal Poly’s student news organization says the nonprofit corporation that operates campus dining facilities has slashed its advertising with Mustang News after the publication ran a story on a study that gave poor nutritional ratings to those facilities.

A Feb. 8 story that ran in the Mustang News cited a study by Cal Poly nutrition students that found food choices at campus dining venues are mostly unhealthy.

Officials from the nonprofit Cal Poly Corporation said the decision to temporarily pull print ads from Mustang News was to rethink its marketing strategy and not based on any reprisal for coverage.

Mustang News staffers published an editorial this month calling the advertising decision a retaliation for news coverage they believe was fair and balanced.

“By removing Campus Dining ads from Mustang News, Cal Poly Corporation is sending a message of authoritarian control,” a March 3 Mustang News editorial noted. “Apparently protecting Campus Dining’s already less-than-sterling reputation is more important than supporting the First Amendment at Cal Poly — not to mention disrespecting the quality of the work done by the nutrition students.”

However, the corporation’s spokeswoman said the print advertising was halted to re-evaluate the marketing approach in the wake of the study by the nutrition students, not in retaliation for the news coverage.

“We paused the advertising, not because of the story, but because of the study,” said Ellen Curtis, the corporation’s director of marketing and communications. “We felt we needed a break in the advertising to provide relevant messaging important to the students.”

The Cal Poly Corporation, a nonprofit wing that supports Cal Poly education and services, is substantially cutting back its print advertising but will soon launch a new online ad campaign focusing on healthful dietary choices on campus, Curtis said.

The corporation was spending about $4,000 per month on print advertising to promote campus dining, making up about 20 percent of the student news organization’s budget. Over the past two months, the Corporation has advertised online in the Mustang News, spending about $575 per month.

The corporation plans to spend 25 percent less on advertising with Mustang News from Jan. 1 through June 1 this year, compared with the same period last year.

The study by Cal Poly nutrition students said that only 12 percent of the entrees served on campus met healthy food standards.

The study found that 36 of 314 entrees and 11 of 31 main-dish salads served at campus dining venues were healthful under the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey, a guideline used nationally to assess nutrition in eateries.

The guideline, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, looked at a number of criteria, including pricing of healthy foods; availability of nutrition information; portion sizes; and availability of healthful entrees, fruits, vegetables and beverages.

Cal Poly has 18 campus dining venues and two campus markets.

On the survey’s metric scale of 0 to 97, with 97 being the most healthful, Cal Poly scored 26, according to the study.

The day after the Mustang News story ran, the corporation suspended its twice-weekly print advertising with the news outlet, except to run a sponsored, full-page ad on March 7 saying many universities have similar challenges in offering healthy options. The ad noted healthful options on campus and said that a forum will be held in April to gather ideas for a Campus Dining Facilities Master Plan now being developed.

Curtis said Tuesday that the corporation will launch its new campaign Monday, focusing on highlighting some of campus dining’s healthier options instead of promoting limited-time dining offers. The nonprofit will advertise once a week in print on Monday, instead of twice per week, as before. And a social media campaign on nutrition awareness will be focused around the hashtag #healthyhacks on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

“In addition, we have bought space in the Mustang News special Open House and 100th anniversary print editions,” Curtis said.

Paul Bittick, the Mustang News general manager of student media who oversees advertising, has worked for the news outlet for 14 years. He said the corporation informed him the advertising move wasn’t retaliatory.

“I want to believe that,” Bittick said.

But Bittick sees a need to diversify its revenue sources. The Mustang News ad team has won national awards and secures about 85 percent of the organization’s revenues; about 15 percent comes from university funding designated for Instructionally Related Activities.

“We’ll be looking at making sure we’re trying to pick up other revenues,” Bittick said. “We’re trying to push really hard in other areas.”

He said Mustang News doesn’t let advertising decisions control news coverage, a fundamental principle of media ethics.

Kayla Missman, the Mustang News editor in chief, said the news outlet will continue to “push our staff to go forward on controversial, investigative” news coverage.

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 7:13 PM with the headline "Cal Poly food provider cuts Mustang News ads after critical story."