I’ve seen my share of arrogance in this business, but this blog by Washington Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander really is outlandishly nuts. Alexander talks about the AMC cinema chain’s decision to stop advertising in print. The reason behind that choice:

“Justin Scott, a spokesman for Kansas City-based AMC Entertainment, Inc., which maintains roughly 300 theaters in the United States, including more than a dozen in the Washington area, suggested the decision was partly budget-related. ‘The expense required to maintain 365-day-per-year movie time ads limits our ability to advertise other important information, like value programs and promotions,’ hesaid in an e-mailed response to questions.

“But he said it also reflected the changing habits of consumers, who increasingly go online for information about movies and schedules. ‘In an era when many moviegoers are using alternative resources to access movie times, AMC has chosen to reallocate its movie time information methods,’ Scott wrote.”

Sounds like a pretty understandable business decision, right? Scott’s point about alternative resources is particularly well-taken; Fandango has a great mobile site that I check for movie information. I haven’t looked at the newspaper movie listings in more than a decade.

Alexander and The Post, however, apparently feel that AMC owes them advertising and that the chain’s decision was a slap in the face to them and their readers. Alexander describes it as a “battle of wills” and a “standoff” between the paper and the cinemas:

“But Post executives are worried about an escalating loss of ad revenue if other movie chains follow suit. And they are hoping that AMC will see a decline in attendance at its local theaters and resume advertising in the newspaper.”

Imagine, for a moment, that you’ve complained to a waiter after having been served an undercooked meal at a restaurant. Would you go back to that establishment if the waiter responded that he or she hoped you got food poisoning?

That’s exactly what happened here between The Post and one of its major advertising clients. It shows how the paper’s business strategy, at least in in this case, is built on ego. Alexander is saying that no matter how AMC feels, they need big, important newspapers to get by.

Apparently, he hasn’t looked at newspaper circulation or advertising revenue statistics lately. He might be shocked to find that newspapers need cinemas more than cinemas need newspapers.

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