Want to influence Joe Biden? Run ads in a 100-year-old newspaper. [View all]

[brooklynite]

Politico

Interest groups trying to influence the president of the United States will often fork over millions of dollars in order to do so. During the Biden era, however, an old media-centric, less splashy technique has been deployed.

A handful of organizations with legislative interests before the government have taken to running print ads in Delaware’s The News Journal in an effort to get their message in front of the world’s most powerful individual, one who is likely the paper's most famous reader. A review of the paper found that 17 ads have been run by these groups between September and mid-November alone.

The ads’ messages range from calling on President Joe Biden to take action on renewable fuel policy, to imploring him to draw down the country's nuclear arsenal, to expressing gratitude that he preserved tribal cultural heritage sites in Utah. They often run alongside the paper’s more traditional ad content: print ads that urge local readers to buy a motorized scooter or hire a new local roofer.

The spots underscore how, when it comes to influence peddling, no stone is left unturned. They also reflect how Biden’s Delaware roots — and his commitment to going back to his home state regularly — have altered how those doing the influence peddling must think and operate.

Biden was known to read The News Journal during his tenure as vice president, and regularly fielded questions from the paper’s reporters on the 2020 campaign trail. That’s carried over, at least in part, to his time as president. POLITICO reported in May that the paper — which employs a few dozen reporters, has been in existence for more than 100 years and largely focuses on Delaware — was delivered to the White House and Biden’s Wilmington home.