If you saw or heard the news or social media reports about Cedar Springs Christian Store and the Knoxville News-Sentinel refusing to publish a going out of business sale ad for store fixtures and to close a location.

Patrick Birmingham, President and Publisher of the Sentinel published a letter yesterday. Read the letter in its entirety on Knoxnews here. In his letter he apologized saying it was a glitch in the front end software system.

This paragraph in Birmingham’s letter raised my eyebrow, “We have had a business relationship with Cedar Springs Christian Store and have run many ads as a part of that relationship.”

It really raises the question about the effectiveness of local small businesses advertising in a daily newspaper. If those ad dollars spent had been used in cost of operations or product offering would it have saved the business? It is really a rhetorical question and one we will never have the answer too.

**the featured image of the Knox News President and Publisher was taken from the Knox News Facebook page.