DO-NOT-CALL ACT PASSES CONGRESS; PAPERS WORRIED National telemarketing registry one step closer to reality

NewsInc, Feb 17, 2003

Last week's passage of the national "Do-Not-Call" act -- which will provide for the Federal Trade Commission to create an national registry of individuals who do not wish to be solicited over the telephone -- by unanimous consent in the U.S. Senate and virtual unanimity in the House, may mean trouble to the U.S. newspaper business.

"It's something that there's a lot of public support out there for," said Paul Boyle, senior vice president of government affairs for the Newspaper Association of America, the Vienna, Va.-based industry trade association.

In recent decades newspapers have come to rely almost exclusively on telemarketing to drive new subscription sales.

The congressional action -- the bill passed the House on a vote of 418-7 last Wednesday and passed the Senate by unanimous consent last Friday night -- follows court action by the trade groups, the Direct Marketing Association and the American Teleservices Association. The two organizations have filed suit saying that a government-run, do-not-call registry would be a violation of First Amendment rights to advertising freely.

The two groups -- in addition to the NAA -- believe that a national voluntary registry is preferable over one run by the government.

"If it gets hung up in the courts, maybe a voluntary national list is the way to go," said the NAA's Boyle Friday night.

Boyle seemed to hold out the hope that because some states have do-not-call rules that specifically exempt newspapers, possibly the national registry will have to follow suit.

In addition, lawmakers also last week agreed to keep a deal for this fiscal year that would put seed money to start the registry into the FTC budget. The bill that passed the House and Senate allows the FTC to charge telemarketers a fee to run the registry beginning this year and through 2007.

A national do-not-call registry is a popular concept with virtually every constituency that isn't involved in telemarketing. "Whatever happened to the quiet evening at home?" Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee was quoted by a number of news sources as saying when the bill passed the House.

"This legislation will allow hundreds of thousands of Americans to enjoy peace and quiet at home," Tauzin said to the press.

Not many things pass the House and Senate almost unanimously; the do-not-call registry seems to fall into the mom, the flag and apple pie category. Newspaper marketing executives better be thinking of new ways to solicit subscriptions because things just might not go newspapers' way on this one.