Y5ij' SRE CIErA i~A 5 go FIl THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER ITS PROMISE AND DEVELOPMENT BY EMERSON P%15ARRIS SPECIALIST IN INDUSTRIAL JOURNALISM, AUTHOR OF "CCOOPERATION THE HOPE OF THE CONSUMER"' AND FLORENCE HARRIS HOOKE RESEARCH STUDENT IN PSYCHOLOGY U * * I?* U.,* ,'. * U * U D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK 1908 LONDON COPYRIGHIT, 1923, Byr D. APPLETON AN]) COMPANY PRINTED IN TEE UNITE~D STATES or' AmERICA 'j\c^ 2, V-i>\. < PREFACE' Recently in the course of conversation with an Englishwoman, a recognized leader in social research, we spoke of our intention to write a book on the local newspaper. "But," she remarked, "I should have said that the day of the local paper was passed; that its place had been more than filled by the city dailies with their wider scope and better facilities for handling news." This view is fairly common, especially among city people whose social groupings are not along neighborhood lines and who are used to nothing more intimate in the way of news than that contained in the big daily. They point to the homely and even trivial items in the local paper's news columns and express a doubt whether such a paper does anything for its readers beyond merely pandering to their thirst for minute personal gossip. Even among habitual readers of the local paper, there are many who have little respect for it as a comprehensive chronicle of community life. Indeed we have found, both in England and America, a considerable tendency to belittle the local paper and even to predict its ultimate decay. There are numerous local papers which seem to support one in this opinion. They drag out a weak, fumbling existence, apparently without vision or purv Vi PREFACE pose, keeping themselves before a fickle public through an appeal to that unquenchable interest in neighborhood happenings which is at once the despair and the hope of small town life. They deal in cheap and indiscriminate flattery and a variety of pale editorial cynicism which, to the eye of the chronically discontented, passes for sage adverse comment. Their news columns may be wildly inaccurate or merely stupid and lifeless, following the line of least resistance. Everyone knows them, at least by reputation, and, unfortunately, with many people they are the first to spring to mind whenever the local paper is mentioned. Much of the popular despair for the future of the local press is based on a contemplation of their sins. Happily, these papers are not typical. One recalls, in England and in America, vigorous and notable examples of another sort. Large or small, these papers are unified, interesting, constructive. They are distinguished for a comprehensive grasp of their peculiar,and many-sided local situations and for an increasing capacity to serve as flexible organs of intercommunication for the town and its adjacent countryside. Judging from their circulation and from popular comment, they have made themselves indispensable to hosts of readers who also have, or could have, access to neighboring metropolitan dailies. Thus it would seem that they give the reader something of value which, despite its wider scope and general excellence, the big city daily cannot furnish. The successful local paper of to-day has gone far toward, and is prophetic of, that larger local journalism PREFACE vo Vll which will parallel the needs of the primary unit of democracy, the small town. But it has only begun to realize the possibilities of its field from the standpoint of intensive cultivation, both on the news and business sides. In the town to-day, there is a growing need for inter-communication between the people. There is a need for making the local government and public serving agencies better understood by the townsman and more responsive to him. What is more important from an economic standpoint, there is an imperative demand for such an advertising medium as will facilitate really efficient merchandising. The community newspaper with scope enlarged to meet the present human and economic needs thus presents a very attractive opportunity for service with ample reward. It is doubtful if there is any editorial position to-day more important, from the standpoint of influence and opportunity for service, than that of the editor of a broadly conceived and well-developed community newspaper. Here, as nowhere else, can the editor know his readers and be known by them. Indeed much of his work is conditioned upon personal contact and response. Here, with a little persistence, he can readily acquire the knowledge which will fit him for expert leadership and large service. Advertising is fast coming to be recognized as absolutely necessary to efficient merchandising. The advertising receipts of newspapers and periodicals of the country have grown 121.5 per cent in the last five years. Meanwhile merchants in the average community probably do not use one-fourth the publicity required viii PREFACE adequately to provide for local distribution of commodities. The local community affords a most advantageous field for publicity development, since the trading area of the town so nearly coincides with the normal circulation area of the local paper, and since the publisher is in that close touch with both advertisers and readers which enables him to build an ideal advertising medium and to develop advertising to its full. When the local paper comes to be based upon a careful study of the needs of its field, followed by intensive working of it, its importance as a business opportunity will bear no comparison to that of similar papers of the past. The writers are fully convinced that by the application of the principles of specialized journalism to the local newspaper, its usefulness can be more than doubled and its profits increased accordingly. This book deals with the newspaper whose chief concern is the life and development of its own community as distinguished from the larger or metropolitan paper which carries a large proportion of general material and international news and whose interest is worldwide. Part I of this book attempts to analyze the community and the individual with special reference to their newspaper needs. It contains the theoretical groundwork necessary to later discussion. Part II deals specifically with the editorial contents of a paper which aims to meet the needs outlined in Part I. PREFACE ix Part III contains a fairly full discussion of the problems involved in selling the product to readers and advertisers. Part IV considers relations of the publisher to his field and to the work in hand. There are half a dozen chapters in this book to which we earnestly invite the attention of every reader who has the community interest at heart. However wellinformed or experienced he may be, we hope that these portions of the book which give its distinctive message will challenge his interest and thought. There are a dozen chapters which, we believe, will repay the attention of the teacher of journalism or local newspaper man who has a background knowledge of the business of local publishing. For the student or beginner in local journalism, we recommend a reading of the entire book. Acknowledgments are due to scores of publishers in England and America who, on our visits in quest of information, have without exception given us their cordial cooperation; to professors in various schools of journalism and to others who have aided us through correspondence. We cannot refrain from special mention of courtesies extended us by W. S. Crawford of Crawford, Ltd., Lionel Jackson of G. Street & Co., Ltd., E. J. P. Benn of Benn Brothers, Ltd., Editor Baker of the Newspaper World (London), and Editor Brown and Herbert 0. Ridout of the Editor and Publisher. To Professor Grant M. Hyde of the University of Wisconsin, we are indebted for much valuable help, x PREFACE and particularly for the suggestion of such illustration and amplification of the principles set forth in this book as especially fit it for classroom use. For valuable suggestions and other work in connection with preparation and revision of manuscript, our sincere thanks are extended to Robert MacDougall, Department of Psychology, New York University, Corinne Reinheimer and Beryl Williams. E. P. H. F. IH. IL CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE........ Vii INTRODUCTION....... xiii PART I NEWSPAPER NEEDS OF THE COMMUNITY CHAPTER I. THE TOWN'S NECESSITY: THE PUBLISHER'S OPPORTUNITY..... 3 II. THREEFOLD SERVICE OF THE LOCAL PAPER. 15 III. THE VOICE OF THE PUBLIC SERVING AGENCIES....... 29 VI. "LISTENING IN," ON THE READER.. 49 V. THE NEWSPAPER AS GUIDE, PHILOSOPHER AND FRIEND..... 69 PART II CREATIVE EDITORIAL SERVICE VI. THE EDITOR...... 93 VII. NEWS CONTENT..... 115 "VIII. MAKING ADVERTISING SERVE THE READER. 137 IX. THE EDITORIAL PAGE.... 151 xi xii CONTENTS PART III BUILDING CIRCULATION AND ADVERTISING CHAPTER PAGE X. THE NECESSITY FOR ADVERTISING.. 167 XI. CREATING AN ADVERTISING MEDIUM.. 179 XII. ENLISTING READERS.... 200 XIII. How TO SELL ADVERTISING SPACE.. 212 XIV. RATES....... 236 XV. NATIONAL ADVERTISING.... 249 XVI. CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING.... 263 XVII. NEW USES FOR ADVERTISING... 277 PART IV THE PUBLISHER AND HIS FIELD XVIII. NOTES ON SELECTING A FIELD... 299 XIX. POINTS IN POLICY AND MANAGEMENT. 303 XX. THE SUBURBAN PAPER'S PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES..... 311 / XXI. BUILDING AND VALUING A PUBLISHING PROPERTY...... 324 APPENDICES I. ADVERTISING RATES AND RATE CARDS.. 333 II. CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING.... 337 III. THE OREGON CODE OF ETHICS FOR JOURNALISM...... 358 INDEX........ 367 INTRODUCTION This hook deals with the problems of the small town newspaper. It presents a searching analysis of such a newspaper property and its field of operations and suggests the application to it of the principles long since established as "fundamental" in connection with industrial journalsim. The authors, Emerson P. Harris, and his daughter,:Mrs. Florence Harris Hooke, have collaborated most successfully in the preparation of a volume that is easy to read and decidedly worth reading, as well as one that promises to be the authoritative work on this subject,,challenging, as it does, the interest and attention of all those who have at heart the problems of the community newspaper. Mr. Harris is, without qualification, I firmly believe, the recognized authority in America upon property, goodwill, and circulation values in the trade, class, magazine, and technical fields. He is often spoken of as the "dean"' of trade journalism. For more than a quarter of a century he has been a student of the outstanding developments in the special publishing field. He was the founder of two technical weeklies of national circulation, Power and the Street5 Raflway Journal, now the Electric Railway Journal, each of which is a leader in its field. He also founded Selling Magazine, now Ad., xiii xiv INTRODUCTION vertising and Selling. For a dozen years Mr. Harris conducted the Harris-Dibble Company, a brokerage firm which negotiated the transfer of most of the business publishing properties that changed hands throughout the country. He also had much to do with the re-organization of such properties. Although most of his work has been along the lines of business journalism, Mr. Harris is not without experience in the local field. In The Grape Belt, a local semi-weekly newspaper of 5,000 circulation which he founded and of which for four years he was proprietor, some of the ideas set forth in this book were demonstrated. Thus Mr. Harris is peculiarly fitted to discuss the application of the principles of specialized publishing to the problems of the community newspaper. Mrs. Hooke brings to the study of the community life and the science of the mass, or social, mind of the average small town a wealth of scientific data which represents perhaps the first attempt ever made to place local news service on a scientific basis. In her analysis of the needs of the reader and of the pyschological function of the paper in helping to meet them, Mrs. Hooke seems to have struck a promising lead. Should this new conception of the newspaper prove as practical and beneficial as the authors believe it willa question which only experiment can determine-the change will mark a new era in the publishing of the small-town newspaper. JAMES WRIGHT BRowN PART I NEWSPAPER NEEDS OF THE COMMUNITY CHAPTER I "THE TOWN'S NECESSITY, THE PUBLISHER'S OPPORTUNITY IT is the aim of these pages to show that conditions of life in the modern community call for a newspaper service unique and more intensive than is generally realized: that no miniature metropolitan paper can adequately fill the need and that the new community journalism to be developed is rich in opportunities for service and promising from the standpoint of pecuniary reward. The Town of Yesterday.- Tracing briefly the growth of Littleton, old settlers remember it as a small cluster of farmhouses at the junction of two main-traveled roads. Presently a store was opened, and a post office; with the help of farmers up and down the roads, the church was built, and later still came th9 schoolhouse. For years that was all. -littleton was a self-contained community of selfcontained households. Each Littleton family was comparatively self-sufficient. It lived by farming the land and sold enough produce to buy the few articles which it could not raise or make. It had its own supply of water and its own arrangements for the disposal of wastes. Wood fires furnished the heat, candles the light, and horse and manpower did the work. Of course, every one knew every one else. Neighbors met on the road, in the store, at the post office and at 3 4 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER church. They visited, exchanging bits of gossip and opinion, and discussed matters of common interest. The local leaders were those who could do specific things well and who, through personal contact, could inspire sufficient confidence in their neighbors to carry their point in local affairs. The Town of To-day.-Look at Littleton to-day. Just north of the old crossroads runs th/yrailroad, and with it have come mills and factories. The population numbers some thousands, and the town has spread in every direction to furnish homes for the newcomers. The water supply, waste disposal, and fire and police protection are in the hands of the municipal government. There are parks, paved streets and sidewalks, gas and electricity for fuel and lighting, and a telephone system. A trolley line connects the town with its nearest city to the south. From a settlement of a few scattering farmhouses, Littleton has developed into a town of homes, schools, churches, libraries, stores and industrial plants, all interrelated, and all served and physically unified by an elaborate system of local utilities. The practical self-sufficiency of each household is a thing of the past. Town life involves a division of labor. Each man delegates to others a large number of the functions necessary to his life and comfort. Completely cut off from the ministrations of his neighbors and of the local government, he would soon find himself cold, hungry and idle. So Littleton has not merely added to its numbers. It has developed into an organism in which groups of individuals function more or less satisfactorily on behalf of the whole. THE PUBLISHER'S OPPORTUNITY 5 The Group Spirit.-Greater than the citizen's selfassertiveness or his frequent lapses into petty strife is his fundamental tendency to work and live in union with his fellows. It is upon this capacity for group activity that town life, indeed all social life, depends. In the old Littleton this capacity was present: it found expression in neighborly feelings and acts and in the performance of a few collective tasks such as caring for the roads and maintaining school and church. Given half a chance at industry and commerce, Littleton was bound to grow in organized complexity as well as in size. But what do these physical changes mean for the people of Littleton Advantages, physical and intellectual; richer and more diversified living. Important changes in the social structure. Neighborliness is one of the more personal expressions of the universal tendency to cohesion among human beings. To it old Littleton, united in a common effort to live by the soil, looked for sympathy, inspiration, a chance to express its opinions and to exchange information on practical matters. As Littleton has grown, this social force, of which neighborliness was a partial expression, has also undergone organization fitting it to meet the new demands for complex group activity. "Where formerly Smith depended upon a neighbor who happened to be going to the post office to fetch his mail, now the service is regularly performed by a special mail carrier, and where once he and his neighbors contributed supplies in a hit-or-miss fashion to a certain poor family on the outskirts of the town, to-day their case is '6 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER systematically and more intelligently handled by the local Altruist Society. The Outgrowths of Neighborliness.-The chief channels in town life through which the feeling of neighborliness flows may be noted here: 1. Part remains in the old personal form, manifesting itself in the townsman's interest in the doings of friends and acquaintances, a sympathy felt for them in their joys, sorrows, triumphs and misfortunes, coupled with a desire to be of service. This interest is widespread and productive of good. It is the very stuff of our daily lives. It has a tendency to become detached from its original object and to split into (a) an impulse to follow human happenings for their own sake, irrespective of our personal acquaintance with the actors, and (b) a passion to serve for the sake of service. These are normal tendencies and valuable, within proper limits, both to individual and community. They furnish important material awaiting the touch of leadership. 2. Part finds expression in gatherings for social, religious, educational or other purposes. Such gatherings are particularly rich in satisfaction to the townsman when they give him an opportunity to join in the expression of views and purposes held in common by the group, and thus to feel himself in substantial agreement with people whom he cares for and respects. They are of greatest value to individual and town when they lead to group action in which he can participate, as in the case of a mass meeting at which funds or service are pledged for a worthy local purpose. THE PUBLISHER'S OPPORTUNITY On this point Dr. William McDougall, noted authority on the behavior of the group mind, says:'This tendency to seek and maintain a share in groupconsciousness, which... manifests itself everywhere even under the most adverse conditions, not merely yields comfort and satisfaction to individuals, but brings about results which are in almost every way extremely advantageous for the higher development of human life in general.... The group spirit secures that the egotistic and altruistic tendencies of each man's nature, instead of being in perpetual conflict as they must be in its absence, shall harmoniously co-operate and reinforce one another throughout a large part of the total field of human activity. For it is of the essence of the group spirit that the; individual identifies himself, as we say, with the group,! Smore or less;... his self-regarding sentiment becomesi extended to the group, more or less completely, so that he is moved to desire and to work for its honor and glory by the same motives which prompt him to desire and to work for his own welfare and success and honor. 3. Part operates as the force by which men are held together by their daily work. Outside a man may be the rankest of individualists, but where he finds himself actually engaged in company with others in furnishing a service or turning out a product-whether his work be in a bank on a busy Saturday morning or in a box factory or on the foundations of a house-he temporarily forgets his personal desires and submits to the need of the hour. This ability of workers to cooperate is especially noticeable where one gang of workers is " McDougall, The Group Mind, pp. 108-111. 8 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER pitted against another, or where outside competion is felt.2 4. A large part of the neighborly spirit is necessarily absorbed in the actual organization and conduct of local functions. This is the force behind municipal government and the less formal coordinating bodies, such as the board of trade and the town improvement association. It finds expression in individual leadership, of which in Littleton-grown-up there is a vastly greater need than there was in the old Littleton. On the other hand, leaders are no longer known personally as the friends and neighbors of all the people they serve. Town problems have become more technical and impersonal and it is increasingly difficult for the townsman to keep informed as to what is going on, and alive to his civic responsibility. In the same way it is hard for him to compass the new problems which face him as consumer. Vaguely he knows that, under our competitive system of retail distribution, much can be accomplished through the cooperation of enlightened buyer and efficient merchant. But often he lacks sufficient knowledge of the local situation to enable him intelligently to cooperate. Something more than casual shopping is needed to inform the buyer so that he may serve his own best interests as well as those of the town. It is plain, then, that while the fibers of social cohesiveness permeate every phase of local life, it is no longer possible for town dwellers, thousands in number, "a Hollingworth, H. L. and Poffenberger, A. T., Jr., Applied Psychology (Appleton), pp. 136, 213. THE PUBLISHER'S OPPORTUNITY 9 to obtain through personal contact the practical knowledge which they need in the intelligent conduct of everyday living. Nor can they, unaided, bring to bear upon the community the force of enlightened opinion. Need of a New Kind of Local Paper.-This vital need for information, intercommunication and the coordination of town activities, constitutes a demand for a type of local newspaper more broadly and intensively developed than has yet been produced. The necessity is for an instrument whereby the group spirit can be made effectively to function in the modern complex community, and there is every reason to believe that when this need is fully appreciated and such a paper developed, it will yield its publisher social and pecuniary rewards far beyond those at present realized. Range of the Newspaper's Opportunity.-The paperI should first of all be the purveyor of local intelligence. Its duty is to record in a sympathetic and vivid manner the interesting and notable events, great and small, which occur in your life and mine. No move of ours, no change of occupation or of residence, should fail to receive appropriate recognition. To the outsider, these personal items may seem mean and trifling. To us they are the very fabric of life, the life which, despite our national or cosmic concerns, is with us twenty-four hours a day. In reading them we gratify our natural craving to share in the experiences of others, and taking them together, we get a lively sense, not elsewhere obtainable, of that larger town family of which we are a part. Besides this constructive function, the paper can, 10 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER through accurate statement printed in time, prevent wild rumors of the sort which, especially in periods of local disaster, become rapidly magnified and lead to popular hysteria. Of at least as great importance as the news of events is the intelligent treatment, in attractive form, of such tendencies and developments as really constitute the fundamental substance of the town's life. These are likely to be overlooked or neglected because of their lack of spectacular appeal. Among them might be mentioned such matters as the growing tendency of our young people toward-or away from-going to college or marrying young or returning to the "old" town for business and residence. The local paper is the natural purveyor of utility information. Specialized like the trade paper, it should become a manual of reference for the use of citizens in their business of living in a town. It stands between townsmen as producers and merchants, eager to keep factories running and goods passing over the counter, and townsmen as consumers in need of enlightenment as to the methods and materials of home making and the administration of their local life. The paper which recognizes its responsibility and opportunity in this connection can render an important service, Again, the paper occupies -a strategic position between officials of the local government, of various institutions such as schools, churches and social organizations, and the public whom they serve and to whom they are finally responsible.. It is delegated by the people to procure for them the information necessary THE PUBLISHER'S OPPORTUNITY 11 for their intelligent participation in public activities. Its news columns make it the informal yet authentic organ of every individual or group whose doings concern the town; its advertising space is their official mouthpiece; its editorials undertake to measure events and developments by the standards of the Greater Town, and thus to give voice to the local sentiment. Shall our grammar schools have one or two sessions? Shall we adopt daylight-saving time? Shall the north end tract be set aside as a park in memory of our soldiers and sailors? To every such question, on which the citizen urgently requires information, a summary of arguments, sometimes an official statement, and always more or less dispassionate comment, the paper should thus devote its text, editorial and advertising columns. We know that much of the town's feeling, thought and action manifests itself in organized activities. These the paper should seek to record fairly and in a cooperative spirit. In addition, it will frequently find it possible to aid organizations in bringing about public action where action is needed. It can, for example, powerfully reinforce the Parent-Teacher Association i* its efforts to obtain, from the local authorities, a larger appropriation for playgrounds and playground equipment. "Undeveloped Resources.-It is upon the existence of suitable leaders and popular confidence in them that the progress and well-being of a town largely depends, and in every community there are, fortunately, a few people willing to make the town's cause their own. These, the natural local leaders, may justly look to the 12 THE COMMTUNITY NEWSPAPER paper to amplify their voice raised in an effort to arouse the apathetic and enlist the less socially minded. There are at least two ways in which the paper can render valuable service to the local leader. It can devote its news, editorial and advertising columns to a logical statement of the cause he advocates. Again, it can, by giving discriminating recognition to a leader, together with a statement of his experience and other qualifications, and of his special interest in the question at hand, help him to carry weight with those readersand they are numerous--to whom the person-in-aposition-to-know makes a greater appeal than does any amount of direct logical argument. Suppose Mrs. A. is urging the Board of Education to serve hot lunches through the winter to the children in School C, located in a poor district of the town. The paper may well print, comment upon, and supplement her arguments in favor of this move. It may also state that Mrs. A. is herself a mother, and that for this reason and because, prior to her marriage, she taught in School C, she may be supposed to have at heart the interests of all children and to be especially interested in those in the School 0 district. The paper is in a position to discover and help to prominence an occasional new man or woman endowed with civic vision and potential leadership. As a first step to this, it can stimulate correspondence, especially "selected correspondence" from those whom it knows through previous acquaintance, to be qualified to speak with authority to a given question. A civil engineer, for example, living in a suburb and working in a near THE PUBLISHER'S OPPORTUNITY 13 by city, may in this way be induced to take a valuable though unofficial part in the life of his community. But the paper can go still farther. We have seen it, as the natural carrier of news and opinion, friendly critic of the town's leaders, promoter of good causes and coordinator of the town's business interests and social activities. In addition, it can create public sentiment and become a leader of leaders. There is in every community a store of social power, a capacity for friendliness, self-sacrifice, cooperativeness and devotion to the common good. This is a precious possession too seldom called into use. As a noted writer has said in another connection, the town is a supersaturated solution of good social intentions with nothing upon which to crystallize. Then comes war or local disaster, a fire or a flood, and at once petty jealousies are forgotten and acts of unselfishness are matters of common occurrence. It is within the possibilities of the local paper so to enlarge and stimulate the imagination of its readers as to release this valuable energy, this selfless devotion to the common cause, and harness it to the service of the greater community. Moreover, it will find ways of defining specific problems and of focusing the liberated energies upon them. Such are the logical functions of the local paper, awsk they are revealed by a study of the town, which, in the course of its evolution, has come to demand a flexible medium of information, intercommunication and coordination of its parts. 14: THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER Nearly every local paper has worked the social and economic topsoil of its community. By a long process of trial and error, its editor-publisher has hit upon the sort of thing the reader will take, and then gives him that and perhaps more of it. Some one has said that there is a farm under every farm. By deeper ploughing and intensive cultivation new and greater crops may be produced. Just so there is a paper under every paper. The new local editorpublisher will need to dig beneath the present paper and the rule-of-thumb practices by which it is commonly run. Hie will need to examine his problem as the engineer examines his, in 'an effort to discover and properly to appraise every factor of the situation. He will need to study his market-the town-not as an aggregation of people living in a given territory with a name, bu~t as a social and economic organism as dependent upon the local paper as is the physical organism upon its nervous or circulatory system. The JTournalist's Opportunity.- Often in the past, the local paper has been run by "just anybody." It is evident that the larger local journalism calls for men Iand women of a new type. They must be town specialists as well as trained journalists. Beyond that they must be endowed with social vision, business ability, enthusiasm and a gift for leadership. To such men and women there is offered an unparalleled opportunity. CHAPTER II THREEFOLD SERVICE OF THE LOCAL PAPER Thinking of a nation, the mind naturally focuses upon its big cities. New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington and a few others-and you have the United States: its wealth, its thought, its social and political life. The attention is caught and held by the startling events that take place in cities. The imagination is stimulated by the thought of heterogeneous peoples, living within a limited area, as by the spectacle of the actual crowd. The National Importance of the Town.--But this is a hopelessly inadequate picture. To grasp America, one must think of her as a nation of towns and small cities and of rural territory whose population is, for economic and other reasons, drawn more and more into contact with towns. Only just over a third of the population lives in cities of more than 25,000 inhabitants. The balance is distributed as follows:' In towns of 10,000 to 25,000.......... 1.6 In- towns of 5,000 to 10,000......... 4.7 In towns of 2,500 to 5,000.......... 4.3 In incorporated places of less than 2,500 8.5 In other rural territory................ 40.1 Littleton is not exceptional. As every one is now aware, hundreds of smaller communities, on their way ' Census of 1920. 15 16 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER to becoming Littletons, dot the map from Maine to California. Most of them are clearly rural in origin, but, in addition, there are the suburban towns about the large cities, railroad towns and towns which owe their existence to some one's desire to locate a manufacturing plant in a certain relation to markets, raw materials or other advantages. There are school towns, and towns important as county seats. While they differ widely in detail and in appearance, these towns have much in common below the surface. All but a few have started from some sort of rural nucleus. They have grown because of the advantages accessible to people gathered at a common center. The growth of these towns follows roughly a social pattern: it is marked by internal organization, division of labor and a tendency to get more and more things done in common. We may say that over two thirds of our total population live either in towns, or in country districts whiclh look to near-by centers for trade, sociability, recreation and enlightenment. This fact makes the town and its development vastly more important to the individual and to the state than we are likely to think The town is the working unit of democracy. It is both school and laboratory. Here, if ever, people of different degrees of intelligence and culture, different economic advantages, the server and the served, meet face to face and learn to live together, to work and play together, to seek common ends. By the success with which its towns minister to these ends will the nation's practical democracy finally be measured. THE SERVICE OF T OC.4L PAPER 17 Its Individual Importance.-People live in towns in order ta-eoiy certain econoznc and social adintages which they cannot get in the open country. Work is, on the whole, more clean-cut and agreeable. It is usually done by men in a group, which adds to its interest. In this, as in other ways, town life with its varied social contacts appeals to the group instinct which in all of us is far stronger than we realize. Add to this the fact that town dwellers are enabled to enjoy physical comforts, such as running water, plumbing, gas and electric lights, impractical for the isolated homestead, and you have in the community a way of life which is economically and socially satisfying. It is one which is bound to be increasingly sought by the bulk of mankind. Up to this time we have been considering the town as a whole: its place in the social structure, its evolution and organic nature. We have seen that the adequate local newspaper _isindispensable to the most perfect functioning of the community. We have noted that the townsman delegates a large number of those functions whose performance is necessary to his life and comfort to some other townsman or group. He gives up keeping a cow and instead buys what milk he needs from a man whose sole business it is to keep the cows for scores of families. He himself may work in a store serving scores of families, among them the milkman's. In much the same way he delegates to the local government his administrative function, and to the school his educational function. This division of labojrand interdependence of townsmen results in a great saving of money and energy. 18 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER Moreover, it multiplies the power of each and is capable of strengthening enormously the instinctive group feeling and interest to which we have referred. The Weakness in the Community Structure.-But in a town of any size the individual, busy with his own work, cannot keep personally in touch with all those people and agencies to which he has delegated this or that work. With this loss of touch, there is a dwindling of the feeling of interest and pride in the performance of the old functions. The back-country householder fortunate enough to achieve an electric lighting system for his home is thoroughly alive to its virtues and limitations. There is a personal quality in his attitude toward it which his town cousin does not feel toward the public service power plant which furnishes the same-or better-service. The agencies, on the other hand, have no easy or automatic way of reaching the townsman, so as to receive the benefit of his specific criticism and cooperation. They even tend to break away and serve their own ends, forgetting that they are servants and that their success in the long run depends upon their ability satisfy the needs of the townsman. This loss of touch between institution and townsman is the weak spot in the community structure. It is important to inquire what can be done to strengthen it, and to reanimate delegated activities with a sense of individual responsibility and pride. The numerous agencies which serve the needs of a community may roughly be classified according to the extent to which they are under public control. There THE SERVICE OF THE LOCAL PAPER 19 is the municipal government, a creation of the citizens who own the tools with which it conducts the public business. There are the semipublic institutions, churches for example, created and controlled by groups; the public utilities, owned by corporations but under granted franchise and public control, and, finally, local industries and the purveyors of commodities and services, owned and conducted privately with little or no public supervision. How to Strengthen It.-Now all these agencies are dependent for their support and maintenance upon the revenue which the people contribute, and the amount of this contribution varies not only with the extent and merit of the service, but also with the degree to which the service is understood and approved by individuals in the community. In other words, the municipal administration, whether acting as a legislative or an executive body, or in an administrative capacity through its departments, needs constantly to be "sold" to the people. The same is true of the church, the electric company, the board of trade, the merchant or the plumber. With all these service agencies, the more pronounced and general the approval, the greater the popular response and the more successful the agency. The very first essential, then, for all these agencies is such enlightening publicity as can only be given through a local paper fully alive to its civic duties and responsibilities. The situation calls for what we have termed the paper's t e faL threefold because in it the story of the agency is being told from day to 20 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER day or from week to week through (1) news, (2) editorial comment, and (3) paid advertising. It is our purpose in the balance of this chapter and in the next to set forth how these three elements complement one another and unite to form an harmonious whole. In order to be of value to the public serving agencies, the local paper must reach as nearly as possible all the people in the community and its tone and spirit must be such as to inspire their confidence so that they will be disposed to take its messages seriously and in good faith. With this as a working basis, it must encourage all these agencies-the municipal government, institutions, public service corporations and private concerns and individugls-to buy and use space in which to acquaint the people with their aims, intenlions and doings and the reasons therefore. The agencies must be impressed with the fact that they are in effect public servants, whether they occupy an official position or not; that they owe it to their constituents to give full account of operations in the public's behalf; that nothing can contribute more to harmony and perfect functioning than straight-from-the-shoulder frankness. The recent use of advertising space by the federal government, by public service corporations and by churches and other noncommercial organizations has emphasized the fact that through this means can be accomplished results otherwise impossible. No matter how amply and fairly the paper may report and comment upon the acts and ilicis of the local administration, these need to be drivelh me to the people by THE SERVICE OF THE LOCAL PAPER 21 means of the official signed statement. Such an utterance, not inserted through the courtesy of the paper, but by right, comes with a dignity, an authority which challenges the interest of the citizen and awakens his. respect and confidence. In the case of churches, also, and other semipublic organizations, the selling of services to the people calls for a warmth of commendation and an amount of reiteration incompatible with the policy governing the news and editorial columns of an unbiased paper. In other words, if any of these agencies is to become active in the most effective way, it can do through advertising what must otherwise remain undone, and it is the business of the publisher to make these facts so clear to these possible users of space as enormously to increase the service of his paper to the community and its income to himself. But paid advertising, effective though it is, falls far short of telling the complete story. In addition, indeed regardless of their use of paid space, the paper must report the doings of these agencies as fully as public interest in the news demands. Such matter, however, though entitled to a 'place in the news columns, should not be expected to be written from the point of view or to take the place of authorized statement printed in paid space over the proper signature. Third, the paper must give, as in the case of news, such interpretation and comment on the agencies and their affairs as interest in the subject warrants, stressing especially the relations of the agency to the general welfare. 22 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER Is it not true that this threefold service is vital to the best functioning of these diverse agencies? To be sure, some of them will require a much larger proportion of paid space than others, while yielding less of news and editorial value..hus the merchant will need more than the hospital, at etic club or school. But the principle is the same. 11 those agencies which serve the public and lay claim to public support should be made vocal for their own sake as well as for that of the community. The Newspaper and Local Government.-Applying this to the various classes of agencies, we take first the local government. It is often said that municipal government in the United States is not a thing to be proud of: that this is the point at which our democracy falls down. The questions of self-government present themselves in the most acute form in the conduct of a village, town or small city. But it is a fact that all the elements of such questions lie near the surface and can be kept free from such complications as often obscure the issue when state and national questions are involved. The cure for the shortcomings of democracy is more democracy. Successful and dependable town government is possible only when it measurably expresses the concensus of citizen opinion all the time. Intelligent citizen opinion rests, first of all, upon thoroughgoing publicity. The townsman must be furnished with a steady supply of trustworthy information from which to draw a working knowledge of men and measures. In a town of considerable size he cannot hope to get this information through personal contact. And yet he must THE SERVICE OF THE LOCAL PAPER 23 have it if he is to understand the local situation and to act intelligently. Often when this publicity is neglected until the eve of election, surprise is expressed that the frantic appeals and excited deliverances of those interested are received with indifference. The reason for this apathy is apparent. It is probable that the greatest need of the average local government-that of disseminating intelligence with regard to itself-is a service which might be but is not fully rendered through the local paper. Certainly it is within the province of the paper to make the town government and all its branches an open book to the citizen, thereby doing the municipality a valuable service while providing interesting and useful matter for its readers. The simple record of the town's doings may seem dry and forbidding. Reports of council proceedings, long technical records and an occasional perfunctory editorial-these things interest but a very few people. But let a good advertising copy writer or the able secretary of a reform organization prepare the same material, and he will make copy which is eagerly read. He will relate it to the daily life of the individual townsman in a way which is irresistable even to the casual reader. So the newspaper should do it. The legislative and executive work of a town government is sooner or later of importance to every town dweller. He must constantly be kept aware of the need for his participation in it, both for his own sake and that of the community. It is the business of the local paper to break up, condense and amplify, explain and 24 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER interpret material in regard to the local government so that it becomes both readable and easy of access. This is especially necessary in the case of health, fire and traffic regulations. But this is only half the story. There are good reasons why any representative, elected by men and women of a town and responsible to them, should, at proper intervals, give an account of his stewardship. It should appear in his own paid space in the paper and over his signature. While this is an unusual form of publicity, it is one which might be made of great value to the citizen and official as well as to the newspaper, whose unofficial story it complements. Illustrations of the use of this threefold service as applied to the work of the local government might be given at great length, but here a single example must suffice. The following pieces of copy, dealing, with a council decision on the question of a proposed bridge, would appear in a single issue of the paper. 1. The News Story: Aldermen Approve New Bridge Project Ordinance Authorizing New Span Costing $90,000 Passed at Hot Meeting A hot meeting of our local legislature was held on Tuesday evening. The oc THE SERVICE OF THE LOCAL PAPER 25 casion was final action upon the much debated measure providing for the ie-i mediate building of the big bridge which is to span the river and connect the north and south sections of our city. It was not, however, an occasion for heat without light, for every phase of the important question was clearly set forth and carefully considered. The large number of voters present, both men and women, attested to the keen interest felt, and the nature of the debate was gratifying, in that there was a notable freedom from irrelevant talk and playing to the galleries for political effect. [Here follows an unbiased account of the points made by the different aldermen.] It is notable that the vote finally stood six for the ordinance to one opposed, and Alderman Fletcher, who cast the dissenting vote, was not opposed to the building of the bridge, but believed that it was unwise to proceed with the work at the present time. 2. Editorial Comment: Our Bridge Project Every citizen interested in the future of Springfield will be gratified to learn that the two parts of our city are at last to be united by a bridge which will be a worthy and permanent structure. Whatever binds more closely these two sections contributes to that union which is strength. Even if we were to think of the investment of the cost of this structure as a capital outlay on the part of the city, 26 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER there could be no doubt of the advantages being worth several times the interest and carrying charges. In this connection we cannot refrain from commendation of the open and aboveboard way in which the whole problem has been met by the members of the present administration. The frank statement by the Board and Mayor certainly shows that spirit which makes for enlightened democracy. Alderman Fletcher's statement again gives evidence of his perfect good faith. 3. Paid Advertisements: a. From the Mayor and Board of AlIdermen THE BRIDGE Statement of the Board of Aldermen and Mayor of the the City of Springfield TO THE CITIZENS OF SPRINGFIELD: In view of the extraordinary interest which has been manifested in the erection of the new bridge across South River, the Board of Aldermen and the Mayor consider it their duty as your elected representatives to state briefly their reasons for deciding to prosecute the work at this time. The need of new and more adequate bridge facilities has long been felt and no valid objection has ever been urged against building the necessary structure. The only argument for delay set forth at this time is that possibly the expense of construction might be less at some time in the future. However, in view of the bad condition of the old bridge, the urgent need of work on the part of some of our citizens, and the fact that payment for the work will materially stimulate local business, it has seemed to us that the argument is overwhelmingly in THE SERVICE OF THE LOCAL PAPER 27, favor of beginning work on the new bridge at the earliest practicable moment. By order of the BOARD OF ALDERMEN AND THE MAYOR OF SPRINGFIELD b. Statement from Alderman Fletcher THE BRIDGE Statement by Alderman Fletcher TO THE CITIZENS OF WARD 7AND THE WHOLE CITY: I was elected on a platform which declared against building the big bridge until construction costs were lower. I therefore wish to state here that I opposed the measure providing for the building of the bridge at this time for the reason that construction costs have not materially decreased and it did not seem to me that the reasons urged in favor of building now were sufficient to absolve me from my election pledges. I opposed the building at this time, believing that only so could I be true to my trust and not false to the interests of the city as a whole. A. C. FLETCHER Member Board of Aldermen for 7th Ward Advertisements which consist of statements by candidates for office, political parties and promoters of special causes have grown steadily in volume since the general introduction of the Australian secret ballot and the enactment of laws forbidding the soliciting of votes at the polls. This is a long step in the right direction, and -ways are being found to stimulate its growth still further. It is not improbable that political advertisers will find it to their advantage to use space more fre-' quently at times other than just before election. When~ 28 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER no election is pending, voters are far more open minded to records of achievement and rational argument on beh of candidate, cause or party.,/The editor of the paper is in a position to "sell" the Yocal government to the people and to sell it so thoroughly that they will have no doubt as to their ownership and consequent privileges and responsibility. But to do this requires skillful merchandising of his own wares. He must serve up his matter, in news, editorial and advertising columns, so that it shall be both appealing and forcible. CHAPTER III THE VOICE OF THE PUBLIC SERVING AGENCIES Valuable as it is to bring this beneficent service and"'I influence to bear on matters of local government, that i is only part of the editor's function. He is similarly to.\ vitalize the relations between the townsman and those other institutions which minister to the townsman's needs. The Newspaper and the Semipublic Institutions.-It is probable that libraries, art museums, public schools, hospitals and other institutions will before long find it advantageous to use paid space in the newspapers for the purpose of bringing themselves more to tfe minds of busy people. The well-equipped library and art museum are utilized by far fewer people than they should be, and the overhead expenses, including interest on plant, are accordingly higher per unit of service than is necessary. The number of books loaned by the average library could be greatly increased by proper advertising, thus multiplying its service to the public and reducing the cost per unit. The same principles apply to the art museum. The public schools have found it to their advantage to use advertising in addressing both parents and pupils. There is every reason to believe that more boys and girls could be kept in school beyond the compulsory age if the matter were impressed upon the 29 30 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER minds of both parents and young people in the way that advertising would do it. The extent of service of the free school, the free library and the free art exhibit could probably be doubled with very little added expense if they were to become more active in their effort to reach the public. This is a busy age in which people are increasingly guided and influenced by the printed appeal. Hospitals and other institutions supported wholly or in part by voluntary contributions are also finding it more and more advantageous to state their needs and special claims to support in paid space. With many potential donors to such semiprivate institutions, the direct appeal of the management is often more effective than matter in the news columns. The paper will, however, give as much space to the activities of such organizations as it believes to be warranted by their news value. Among the other features of town life which require a medium of communication are amusements, lectures and churches. Perhaps that institution which stands to gain most from the paper's news and publicity service is the church. That the church is beginning to see this is witnessed by the increasing prominence of religious display advertising. Among the more conservative there is still some prejudice against this form of publicity. They feel that the display advertising of a church is undignified and inconsistent with the church spirit. This belief probably comes largely from a misconception of the real THE PAPER AND PUBLIC SERVICE 31 function of advertising. Now advertising is merely g1ygqiou-gh_, huse of the printingpress ti atýiifor,a L c ental commendrh mnthA givn in .der, ttypaople avail -hemselves or. The substitution of printed for spoken words is necessary where large numbers of people are to be addressed. Advertising of a kind appropriate for church announcements is more dignified than some of the methods resorted to by nonadvertising churches, and the fact that advertising is now being introduced by the national bodies of some of the leading denominations probably insures that this prejudice will soon pass away. By no other method can the church carry its message to so large a number of people. It can attract new attendants and retain the interest of present ones. Moreover, experience has already shown that the advertising outlay is often more than made up by the plate contributions of additional people who are attracted by the advertisements. The only ground for exempting the churches from taxation is that they contribute to the order and general welfare of the community, that they help toward the attainment of the ends for which democracy strives. The extent to which the churches can make such contribution depends in no small measure upon the degree of coo5peration which the churches receive from the local paper. It devolves upon the publisher to see that his reading columns measurably record and interpret the aims of the churches in the direction of general uplift as well as the news of their activities. It is also his duty to solicit their advertising, special and regular. Of course the 32 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER news columns must not be without an adequate introduction of Dr. Parker, the newly called Congregational pastor. This should include an account, perhaps fuller than the church's announcements could modestly give, of Dr. Parker's ability, experience and equipment to serve the church and community. But in no case should the publisher fail to point out that advertising affords an opportunity for direct appeal, persuasion and reiteration which can be had in no other way. The church that neglects the possibilities of advertising fails to use an instrument of active hospitality which lies ready to its hand. As more church people come to see its advantages, the volume of advertising will be increased and new methods doubtless developed. As yet, however, the church is usually a novice at putting its message into the form of attractive advertising copy, so that it becomes the duty of the publisher not only to educate the church to the use of paid space, but to help it in the preparation of copy. From every standpoint he can well afford to do this. The church is indeed valuable as a factor in the community life. It is, furthermore, a source of interesting local news and of potential revenue from advertising. In view of all this, the paper cannot afford to do less than its utmost to promote the success of the church advertising. Although the subject of church advertising is treated more fully in Chapter XVII, specimen pieces of copy 1 and 2 are given at this point merely to illustrate the principle. But, it may be argued, the news and publicity of any TTHE PAPER AND PUBLIC SERVICE 33 1. TO MAKE MEN AND WOMEN BETTER is the aim of the BROADWAY BAPTIST CHURCH If you come your very presence will help the work. Rev. John Mason will preach Sunday at 11 on "YOUR LIFE'S FULFILLMENT" one church will be of little interest to people affiliated with one of a different denomination. This may be true in some cases, but, in town life, friendship and neighborly interest extend across denominational lines. It is the habit of the townsman to feel a sort of family interest in all local institutions, even in those with which he is not personally identified. Each one contributes in a mneasure to the interest of the town life. Even real estate values are affected by such local institutions, since each enhances to a certain number of people the attractiveness of the community. We may never see the inside of the new Christian Science Church or the Jewish Synagogue, and yet to some people these institutions will give a feeling of at-homeness. To such an extent at least they are town assets, and through the 34 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER 2. ATTEND SOME CHURCH Why? Because churches enable men and women to live larger, fuller, better lives. How? Disclosing an orderly world, the church incites people to conform their lives to beneficent reality and law. Thus they grow. What you think, that you are; what you love, that you become You are invited to THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH Main and Center Streets, SERVICE 11 A.M. Next Sunday the new minister, Rev. John M. Parker, D. D. speaks on "THE CHALLENGE OF LIFE" Attend Some Church diffusion of intelligence regarding them our sympathetic interest is increased. In a spirit of helpfulness the local editor will thus stand ready to further the interest of local government, THE PAPER AND PUBLIC SERVICE 35 churches, schools, hospitals, libraries, art museums, lodges, clubs and all sorts of organizations and activities which make for the fullest life of the town. He will not only indorse and work for all that contributes to the general welfare, but being a specialist in municipal affairs and town promotion, he will often be able to give advice founded upon the experience of other towns. Probably no public official is so important to the best 1. THAT BOY THAT GIRL must not go handicapped through life For lack of a High-School education Great Privileges are Offered Free Better any sacrifice noi, Than life-long regret 2. He didn't finish High School Now it's too late He can't get that good job He feels awkward among the old school mates who stuck to it. He lives with his regrets. ;26 TILE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER interests of the town as the editor who is fully conscious of the responsibilities and possibilities of his job and is8 ready to do it. The specimen advertisements 1 to 5 on page 35 and following pages are examples of what may be done in -the direction of advertising the school, library and art m3useum.1 3. THE FREE SCHOOL Is America's Pride Do not fail to make the best use of the great opportunity now at your door. When you fail to take advantage of our splendid schools, you waste what they cost the taxpayer and you waste the life of the child who lacks schooling. 4. READ "'Reading Makes a Full Man."' Do you stop to think what a variety of books can be borrowed for the asking at the Free Public Library? Get the Reading Habit 1For further treatment see Chapter xvii. THE PAPER AND PUBLIC SERVICE ABSORB BEAUTY Go Habitually to the Art Museum You will enjoy it and the habit will do something for your inner life. ADMISSION FREE MONDAYS Other days 25 cents You are always welcome. A set of pieces of copy illustrating the threefold service as applied to the hospital follow: 1. N~ews Item: Hospital Reports %~in 115 t-kcuivites Extent of Work Carried On Shown in Statement of Mountain View Institution [A half-column news article covers such points as the number of private rooms, ward and free patients, total admissions, average term of care, operations, outpatients, emergency relief in case of accident, etc., total cost per patient, income from paying patients, relation between total expenses and total receipts, present needs as to equipment and money, etc. Description of voluntary services and self 38 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER sacrifice on the part of physicians, nurses and laymen. ] 2. Editorial Comment: A Beneficient Institution Take thought for our new hospital. Read the report in the news columns and the advertisement of President Jones. We citizens of Springfield are certainly fortunate to have in our midst so efficient an institution to care for our suffering friends and neighbors. In view of this, is it not clear that every one of us should regard giving toward the expenses of the hospital not as a burden to be grudgingly assumed, but rather as a privilege to be willingly accepted? The hospital is a legitimate adjunct to every home in the city. It is our community sick room, a place which may be needed at any moment for a member of our own family. It performs a necessary service for the poor in our midst. Let us not add dire lack of funds to the other burdens of management. 3. Advertisement: THAT HOSPITAL-AND YOU That the hospital does a great and beneficent work no one denies. Through 'what other institution that you can name is there such a general ministration to the sufferingI But this ministration must be extended to those who cannot pay. In fact, the hospital is only made possible through the voluntary contributions of our citizens, irrespective of the service which they themselves may ever THE PAPER AND PUBLIC SERVICE 39 receive from it. Every dollar of receipts is made to do one hundred cents' worth of service for the suffering. A complete accounting is given so that you may test this for yourself. Is it not true that your town would be incomplete without the Mountain View Hospital? And if this is so, can you not see your way clear to make a regular annual contribution toward its support? ANTHONY JONES, President 16 South Street Springfield The Newspaper and the Public Utilities Corporations.Perhaps nowhere else in our life is bad feeling more likely to exist than between the town dweller and the public utilities corporation. On the one side is the individual, uninformed and apparently helpless; on the other a powerful monopolistic enterprise upon which he is forced to depend. We say apparently helpless. The public utilities corporation is under public franchise and supervision, and sooner or later it finds itself dependent upon public opinion as expressed through the ballot. Is it possible that the municipal government should find a way to take over its functions? This is one of many large questions on which clear thinking is essential. Here, as in matters of local government, there is first of all an urgent need for the citizen to be enlightened. The public service corporations are constantly increasing their use of paid space in local papers to state their position. Their activities are a source of good reading matter. It is essential that the paper state fairly both sides of 40 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER the case in its news and editorial columns so that the critical townsman shall have within easy reach the information from which to form an opinion. Much that we have said with regard to the paper's news and publicity service to the local government will be seen to apply here. A suggestion for meeting a public service situation by means of the threefold service is given below: 1. Paid Statement: TO PATRONS OF THE FRONT STREET ELECTRIC LINE: It is necessary to relay our tracks through Front Street. We regret that as the street is so narrow, we are compelled to discontinue traffic between Main and Fourth Streets while this rebuilding is under way. Everything possible will be done to hasten the worký and we hope to have it entirely completed by the first of December. Meanwhile cars will be run by way of Third Street, under the sa~me headway, and the running time will be increased by only about five minutes. Craving the indulgence of our patrons and assuring them the best service possible under the circumstances, we remain, Your public servants PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATION OF SPRINGFIELD & VICINITY JOHN M. FRANKLIN, President 2. News-Editorial: The Front St. Trolley Improvement By an announcement printed elsewhere in this issue, it will be seen that the street railway people are about to. THE PAPER AND PUBLIC SERVICE 4 41 begin work on the much needed relaying of tracks on the Front Street line. We learn that this work will be under the supervision of Track Foreman Henry Smith, with all the men, materials and machinery that can be used and that nothing which can possibly be foreseen will be permitted to delay the work. Our readers will recall that we have felt called upon before now to criticize our trolley company and we shall certainly do so again if such criticism seems to us to be called for, but we are bound to admit that the spirit shown by them in this matter leaves nothing to be desired. If our public serving corporations would always be as fair, frank and courteous, city life would be happier. The Newspaper and Local Industries.,-It is to the ad~ vantage of a town that its industrial plants, in which many of the people earn their living, shall be not only in, but of, the town, and a vital part of its life. The better the understanding, the better will be the feeling' between employer and employees, and between both of these and the other townsmen. In this process of assimilation, the paper can do a great deal through the performance of its threefold service of stating the news, interpreting it, and supplementing it by paid publicity. There are signs that industrial employers will in the future seek opportunities to admit the mutuality of the arrangement which exists between them and their employees, instead of maintaining the autocratic attitude which has been all too common in the past. If so,,we may frequently see in the local papers, in paid space, a statement something like the following: L42 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER To ouia EMPLOYEES ANTD THE PUJBLICO:P For some time important improvements in our power plant have been needed. The overhauling now required is of such a nature as to necessitate the shutting down of the factory. We regret to lay off our help but trust that the shutdown will not last over two weeks, after which there is every reason to expect steady running at full capacity for an indefinite period. GE~ORGE, HOLMAN, Superintendent It will be obvious from what we have said regarding the newspaper and the various serving agencies, public and private, that we expect the paper to be not only the publicity medium of the town, but its publicity leader as well. Whatever agency fails to become vocal through its own initiative should be helped to become so by solicitation, suggestion, guidance and other practical assistance. The Newspaper and the Dealer.-. The townsman, the merchant and the newspaper are to an unusual extent dependent upon one another. The principal source of revenue of the local paper is the sale of the advertising space. It is, therefore, natural and wise for the publisher to know how, such space is used in connection with the purveying of goods and services. It cannot be kept too clearly in mind that the justification for advertising lies in the fact that it is a con-structive force performing a real and necessary function in the work of transferring goods from producer to consumer. While the shortsighted or unprincipled distributor may use advertising to exploit the consumer, that is the fault not of advertising, but of the way in THE PAPER AND PUBLIC SERVICE 43 which it is used. It is not too much to say that without advertising it is impossible to pass goods through a store with the greatest economy and the highest degree of satisfaction to the customer. Advertising is not a panacea. It is a tool which must be fitted into an efficient merchandising system. But as there are few dealers in small cities who understand this fact, one of the first duties which the paper owes to merchants and consumers alike is to convert a reasonable number of dealers to a more progressive and farsighted system of merchandising. It is common for the local dealer to charge prices as high as he can hope to obtain, thereby reducing sales to a point where his real gains are less than they would be on the larger sales which small profits would induce. On the other hand, there are merchants who have the courage to demand only moderate profits with faith that in the long run their business will gain through the larger turnover. The success of this better system demands that the dealer buy right, that he organize for skillful handling of goods and customers, mark his prices low and use trained salesmen. It demands, above all, the use of effective advertising with informative and helpful copy. In no other way can he enlist thorough cooperation and thereby insure a large turnover of stock and good total profits. It thus devolves upon the publisher to exercise a large degree of leadership over the mercantile interests of his towi. He will thereby not only add a good revenue to his paper, but he will also inspire the use of 44 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER such copy as will make his advertising columns of real informative interest and benefit to his readers. When mercantile interests are mobilized for success through large turnover and service to consumers, their doings will furnish good matter for the reading columns. While the old fashioned "puff" is an abomination, the publisher who is genuinely interested in, but not subservient to, his mercantile advertisers, will be able to give helpful couiperation in the form of dignified intelligence and commendation of the group. The following serves to illustrate copy which will help alike the consumer, the enlightened merchant and the paper: 1. News-Editorial: Buy in Easthani We take pleasure in calling the attention of local consumers to the advertising pages of this issue, for we are confident that you will. find the offerings of special interest. Almost all of us want to buy in Eastham if we can do so without being penalized for our local patriotism. We are glad to say that it is now not only possible to buy in Eastham without lossin price or quality-but even to buy to better advantage than elsewhere, if only we are willing to exercise proper discrimination. It is unfortunate that there are still in our midst dealers who have the old idea that business consists of getting as much and giving as little as possible. But these men are playing a losing game in THE PAPER AND PUBLIC SERVICE 45 competition with our really progressive merchants who are bound to sell at small average profits and trust to larger volume of sales to make it pay them. Evidently the faith of these farsighted merchants in the people of Eastham is being fully justified. A number of them sold more goods on the 23d of last month than ever before in their history, and the deposits in the local banks indicated that that was the town's banner business day. 4 By their policy of taking the people into their confidence and telling the wholeQ Y truth in advertising, our progressive merchants are fast making Eastham second to no town in the State as a place in which to trade. BUY WISELY IN EASTIIAM! 2. Advertisement: THANK YOU Sincerely do we appreciate your response to our advertising of last Saturday. We do not claim to lift ourselves by our bootstraps nor to give you something for nothing. BUT We buy honest groceries and provisions at as low a price as cash will buy them AND Every article is guaranteed as to quality and quantity and has its price Plainly marked. MOREOVER Our average gross profit is not 25 per cent, nor 20 per cent, but 14 per cent. 46 THE COMIMIUNITY NEWSPAPER This makes lower average prices than any dealer can afford unless he has the skilled, devoted help, the large volume of trade and the excellent facilities of our stores. A TIMELY SUGGESTION OR TWO Fruits Big lot of White Peaches, Baskets of 11 2 quarts $1.05; 5 quarts 50 cents. Cantelopes, last of season, 3 for 21 cents. Apples in great variety. Berries, few and poor. Vegetables Potatoes are down a little from last week, both white and sweet. Other vegetables abundant and fairly cheap, but must be seen. THE STAR FOOD CO. 16 Main St. 87 Front St. Eastham Here is an example, of a class altogether too common-the practically useless retail advertisement: EMPIRE GROCERY Everything in Groceries and Provisions at the very lowest prices. Buy here and get the best and save money. 25 Main St., Eastham Another benefit will naturally follow. The publisher will be ever on the alert to encourage the establishment of really needed new enterprises and will be frank to TH1E PAPER AND PUBLIC SERVICE 47 advise against those in lines already overcrowded. This may seem a far cry from the old conception of running a local paper, but it follows logically from the new idea of the local newspaper man as specialist in town development and administration and real comuity leader. The town is very fortunate which has a live group of merchants, a thorough medium in which they can advertise, and a publisher large enough to lead and too independent to toady. Banking and the buying and selling of real estate and other property are activities which also require proper means of inter-communication. -In general the same principles which were just stated in connection with merchandising will be seen to apply here. Conclusion and Summary.- The town is organized oh a basis of division of labor. A large part of its work-Y is done by individuals or agencies officially or tacitly delegated by the public to do it. The public tends to lose touch with these agencies, and, as a result, both parties suffer. To remedy this lack, the public needs access to a constant stream of trustworthy intelligence. All agencies, which serve the public and lay claim to public support should be made vocal for their own sake as well as for that of the community. Nothing is more conducive to the best work of these agencies than a frank official statement direct to their constituency through the use of paid space in the local paper. This statement should be supplemented by a report 48 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER of agency activities and by editorial comment whenever this is justified by the news value of the activity in question. Only when this threefold service is provided through the use of the well-developed local paper is it possible to restore the loss of touch between serving agency and townsman and thus weld the town into a perfect social and economic whole. The publisher who faithfully, constructively, sympathetically coo5perates with the agencies in their work of serving the town makes a contribution which cannot be too highly appreciated, and which will surely redound to his own glory and profit. CHAPTER IV "LISTENING IN" ON THE READER "Up to this point we have been looking at the community in the large. We have seen it as a social organism, groping and imperfect, but capable of growth and development; a creature barely self-conscious, little understood and without wise conscious direction. We have attempted to voice the challenge which the community presents to the journalistic ability and leadership of the coming newspaper man. We began by pointing out the specific newspaper needs of the town as a whole and of those public serving institutions and agencies through which its life is largely conducted. In this chapter we shall focus upon the individual, for whom, in the last analysis, the paper is made. The townsman reads his paper to get the news, a commodity evidently so valuable to him that rather than go without it he often tolerates a weak paper. Why is this? What is the paper doing for him? And what might it do? News Values.-News has been defined as "the report of whatever acts or events affect the general welfare, or are so characteristic of life (through extraodinary) as to represent the possible experience of all." 1 Harrington, H. F., and Frankenberg, T. T., Essentials in Journalism (Ginn), p. 37. 49 50 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER News values, according to certain writers,2 are determined by the reader's interest in timely happenings, contests for supremacy, the strange, mysterious or unusual, children and pets, matters concerning the property, life and well-being of fellow men, matters of tradition and sentiment, hobbies and amusements. Examples readily come to mind. There is hardly an issue of any newspaper-country weekly or big city dailywhich does not contain numerous appeals to each of these interests, proved through long experience to be universal and unfailing in their power to attract human beings. Definitions and summaries like the above are interesting and suggestive. They represent tireless effort and keen observation in a field in which experience counts for more, perhaps, than in any other. But for our purposes they do not go deep enough. / Human Nature and the Newspaper Man.- Te newspaper man of the future, studying his reade, will wish to know not only what interests him but,h/ it interests him, with a view to uncovering new sources of interest and fitting the whole paper more positively into his daily life. Looking at an event, he will wish to get at the story behind the story,8 the slow, significant human narrative of which the event is the crisis, not only for 'Bing, Phil C., The Country Weekly (Appleton). Bleyer, W. G., Newspaper Writing and Editing (Houghton Mifflin). *In an address delivered before the convention of the Pi Delta Epsilon journalistic fraternity, March, 1921, Malcolm Bingay, managing editor of the Detroit Times, laid particular emphasis on the importance of the story behind the story, and of a thorough training in economies, sociology and psychology for the journalist of the future. " LISTENING IN" ON THE READER 51 the sake of presenting the whole truth, but of training the reader to look for the deeper facts beneath the news, to read the paper for all there is in it. He will wish to present his material in attractive and accessible form, with enough background to insure that it shall be clearly understood. The newspaper is undoubtedly more widely, spontaneously and eagerly read than any other form of printed matter. It is often the chief-sometimes the only-educational resource of the adult. No small part of the responsibility of the newspaper man, therefore, lies in the fact that if the bulk of his readers are to be educated further, he is the man to educate them, not directly, except to a slight degree, but through a skillful selection and presentation of news, utility matter and advertising. This is a large task and a wide opportunity for service. It requires insight into human motives and into both individual and group behavior. The local news-' paper man will need to bring to bear not only his powers of observation, his willingness to work and to learn by experience, but a knowledge of what the experts in psychology, economics and sociology can tell him. He must supplement his point of view with that of the scientist if he is adequately to interpret the modern town and its townsman. Fascinating as the subject is, we cannot go deeply into the psychology of the townsman as newspaper reader. Because of the amount of background necessary, this is matter for a book rather than for a single chapter. All we can do here is to state certain facts about the indi 52 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER vidual's make-up which are important as indicating his fundamental needs as the local newspaper man should know them. In the next chapter we shall speak of the ways in which the paper can serve the townsman and add to its own value by helping to satisfy these needs. In the paragraphs which follow, we would gladly keep to the phraseology of everyday life.. But common terms often have clustering about them associations which render their meaning quite other than that of the stark, original words, and since it is our wish to cut under the common conception of the individual and to present you with a clear blueprint rather than a lifelike portrait of the individual, we must make use, more or less, of the language of the psychologist. We ask your patience, therefore, in the reading of what may appear forbidding pages, in the belief that once having grasped this conception of the 1 ividual, you will find it to throw light upon the underlyi reasons for everyday happenings and upon your task relating them to the life of the reader. Human Motives and Their Analysis.- 1. ur sole purpose, scientifically speaking, is to live and to continue living in our surroundings. We must maintain our balance in a world of constant change and activity. In other words, we must keep going as long as we can, impress ourselves upon our little world of people and things, and then live on in our children and in the institutions-business, church, club and what not-with which we have merged and identified ourselves. Printed suggestions whose application enables us to "LISTENING IN" ON THE READER 53 make better use of our resources-to live better or longer or more economically-contribute to this end. 2. There must be a continual interchange of matter and energy between ourselves and the environment. From it we receive certain raw material: food, air, water and physical sensations, which after a longer or shorter period of transformation issues in various forms of physical and mental activity. Our constant effort, conscious or unconscious, is to speed up and elaborate this process and to unify and integrate it in such ways that we shall be conscious not merely of existing, but of living ever more fully and to a purpose in harmony with the common life. We crave, above all, anything which will minister to the feeling that we "belong." 3. We are unceasingly alert to surroundings. Indeed we must be, for at any moment our safety may depend on our ability to detect sudden change, and to act quickly. The automobile, bearing down upon us, will crush us unless we become aware of it in time to jump from its path. It is from moving objects, indeed from anything new, changing, mysterious or unusual that we have, through countless generations, unconsciously come to expect disaster or good fortune. These are the things which call for action on our part. An interest in them is part of our biological inheritance. It is to this interest that the newspaper man of the past has made his chief-sometimes his only-appeal. 4. Likewise, we are centers of energy and tend to be always active. We are restless, mercurial creatures. Even at play we must be on the move, and, when on account of fatigue or for any other reason we are incap 54 TH COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER able of activity, we are still eager to watch it in other people. Fundamentally the human mind, lik~e the mind of the animal, exists for the purpose of doing things., of enabling its owner to adapt to circumstances; and it can only be understood if it is constantly regarded in this way.-' 5. Reason plays only a small part in determining our conduct. Tradition teaches us that we habitually, act on reason and are immeasurably above the brutes. Limited glimpses of our own mental workings and a desire to thinkc ourselves rational, confirm us in this belief. But although mankind has progressed as far as it has because of superior intelligence and the knowledge it has been able to bring to bear upon complicated situations, forethought as a guide to everyday conduct is relatively rare. What we mistake for reason is commonly rationalization, a process by which the mind justifies to itself acts whose instinctive basis is more or less hidden. Behind philanthropy is often a quite unconscious desire for notoriety on the part of the giver. In this connection it is interesting to note that the general level of intelligence throughout the nation is less than one would think. Goddard, 5 commenting on the results of mental tests in the draft army, a group of 1,700,000 men whom he considers typical for the country, shows that of all the men examined, only 41/2 per cent were men of marked intellectuality, 9 per cent were of superior intelligence, 61 per cent of moderate 4Tansley, A. G., The New Ps~ycholog~y (Dodd, Mead). 'Goddard, H. H., Human Efficiency and Levdel of Intelligenec (Princeton University Press). "U LISTENING IN" ON THE READER 55 intelligence (and slightly better or worse) while 15 per cent were of inferior intelligence and 10 per cent were of the lowest grade intelligence, most of them below the mental average of ten years. "Using the results of this as a guide," says one of his reviewers, "we can roughly estimate that in our country we have about 41/2 millions of people of superior intelligence, the intellectual 6lite. We have nine millions of college grade, and below these 161/2 millions who could profitably take a high school education. Then in the lower ranks... 10 per cent is distinctly infoor.... Above this grade 35 per cent of the populatio ve only the intelligence of children from ten to fI een years." 6. By far the most important features in our mental make-up are the instincts, "inherited modes of reaction to bodily need or external stimulus."' "The instinctive impulses determine the ends of all activities and supply the driving power by which all mental activities are sustained.'7 7. The instincts determining conduct fall into three groups: (a) Self-preservation.-On the physical side this is concerned with nutrition, clothing and shelter-our physical well-being. But it is also the source of our self-respect, pride and ambition. When one succeeds in building up a business against great odds, or in impressing his personality upon his associates in business, social or community life, this instinct finds gratification. 6 Trotter, W., Instincts of the Herd in War and Peace (T. Fisher Unwin), p. 94. " McDougall, W., Social Psychology (Luce), p. 44. 56 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER (b) Reproduction (the sex instinct).-Physically this instinct finds expression in sex gratification, mating and the care of children. Psychologically it spreads to include all sorts of activities connected with persons of the opposite sex, with the home and with music and other arts. "To the compulsion of the sex libido (urge or interest) to find indirect modes of expression," says Tansley,8 "we owo nearly the whole field of erotic liter. ature and a considerable range of wit, as well as much literature and pictoal representation which, while it professes to be so thing else, is really an unconscious expression of the, libido. On the other hand, we owe to it some of highest exaltations and the deepest miseries, the most intense pleasures and the severest physical pains, the stimulus to gigantic efforts, and some of the noblest music, literature and plastic art." Much of our interest in the welfare of the community, especially of its children and other weaker members, clearly springs from a fusion of the parental side of this instinct with the gregarious instinct. (c) Gregariousness (the herd instinct).-This instinct is first of all concerned with protection against outside aggression. But we satisfy it not only when we unite to keep out the invader, but when we cooperate for any other purpose. It is the basis of all mutual aid, collective life and division of labor as they exist in town life. Its bearing on our personal life is strikingly shown in our sensitiveness to the opinions and approval of others and our mental agony when we do something of which we feel others would not approve, "8 Tansley, op. cit., p. 239. "LISTENING IN" ON THE READER 57 even though the action is quite unknown to them. "The only medium," says Trotter, "in which man's mind can function satisfactorily is the herd, which therefore is not only the source of his opinions, credulities, disbeliefs and weakness, but of his altruism, charity, enthusiasms and power." The trait necessary above all others to the smooth operation of the social instinct is suggestibility, and it is undoubtedly because of this trait and not by reason of any logical faculty that the average man arrives at and maintains against all counter argument, opinions on a large number of intricate subjects such as the tariff, equal suffrage, national defense and immortality,; questions which as yet admit of absolutely no incontrovertible opinion. We are peculiarly adapted to perceive and enter into the emotional experience of our neighbor. Through this "primitive sympathy," "each instinct, with its characteristic primary emotion and specific impulse, is capable of being excited in one individual by the expression of the same emotion in another." 9 This fact is not only the basis of certain crowd phenomena, such as panic, but of our vast interest in people as people and of our S ability to project ourselves into the experience of others, real or imaginary, as in the newspaper story or motion picture, thus obtaining vicarious enjoyment from events vividly portrayed. 8. These instincts are as strong in the civilized man as in the animal or savage,'0 and the tendency to conSMcDougall, op. cit. "0 Intelligence leaves its possessor no less impelled by instinet than his simple ancestor, but endows him with the capacity to respond in a larger variety of ways. Trotter, op. cit., p. 97. 58 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER flict between them is well known. To most of us some of the time and to some of us most of the time, life in civilized society, where recurring instinctive demands cannot immediately be satisfied, presents the confused and painful aspect of a battlefield of warring impulses. It would indeed be nothing more were it not for certain of our mental capacities. 9. Our happiness depends not only upon the satisfaction of our instinctive needs, but upon their satisfaction at the cultural level of those about us. We take pleasure and pride in abiding by the established rules of the game. The normal civilized man, for instance, cannot thoroughly enjoy a dinner eaten in the presence of other hungry people who have no likelihood of receiving food. 10. Our life in civilized society is rendered possible by the fact that we can re-direct some of the energy originally flowing through primitive paths into secondary ones. Given the minimum of direct expression, which is essential to our physical and mental well-being and to that of the race, a considerable portion of the energy originally attached to the primitive instincts can be turned into any suitable channel in which we are able to take an interest--our daily work, sport, a hobby, money-making, politics, religion, social activities of various sorts and so on.1" For a vast number of people this adjustment takes place spontaneously and little sense of conflict is felt. For the stable-minded person, whose view of life is largely objective, this simple diversion of available energy into the channels of "work, " Tansley, op. cit., p. 63. "I'LISTENING IN " ON THE READER 59 play, love and worship,"'2 coupled with some direct expression, offers a natural and satisfactory solution. People of this sort form the bulk of society. They are "the salt of the earth." In town life the substantial home and family people, the "good" citizens and neighbors are largely of this type. But there is among us another sort of person who, unless or until he finds a useful place in the community, is disliked or feared by the majority. This is the sensitive, unstable man, and his problems of adjustment are made more difficult by the misunderstanding and impatience of his associates. The way in which he solves his problem is really a matter of supreme importance to all of us, because out of such as he the leader, the devoted, intelligent worker, the creative artist, the original thinker as well as the malcontent and the criminal is often made. 11. Among the ways in which the dissatisfied person attempts to solve his problems of adjustment are the following: (a) He moves to a simpler society, where the things he wants to do are in harmony with the ideals of the group. This is the point of view of the speaker in Kipling's "Mandalay": Ship me somewhere east of Suez Where the best is like the worst, Where there ain't no ten commandments And a man can raise a thirst. ' Dr. Richard C. Oabot in his What Men Live By (Houghton Mifflin) gives what amounts to a clear and delightful treatise on this solution. 60 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER Such a simple society may virtually exist in the midst of a more complex one. Thus the criminal has his gang upon whose approval he has learned to depend, and in whose company he finds a measure of satisfaction. (b) He stays where he is, obeys the promptings of one instinct to the exclusion of the others, and endeavors through rationalization and the establishment of a system of logic-tight compartments, to attain a sort of inner harmony. We may cite as an example the man whose business dealings are characterized by the petty deception of customers. To himself he excuses this partial violation of the herd instinct on the ground that his competitors do the same thing. He may even overcompensate for it by being exceptionally praiseworthy in his other social relationships. (c) He disparages the efforts and motives of other and often more constructive people in an attempt, through mentally debasing them, to place himself higher in his own estimation and in that of other people. It is common for a person to speak slightingly of a man of whom he is unconsciously jealous. (d) He reduces his contact with the actual world to a minimum and seeks gratification through identifying himself with real or imaginary persons whose instinctive actions are not blocked by circumstances. In effect, he builds an ideal world and lives in contemplation of it, after the manner of William Blake, "leaving the delusive Goddess Nature to her laws, to get into freedom from all law of the numbers into the mind in which everyone is king and priest in his own house." "LISTENING IN" ON THE READER 611 This is the mental mechainism of many inveterate "'movie fans" and novel readers. Each of these "solutions" represents an exaggeration of tendencies found in eadh of us. For most people these do not prove satisfactory adaptations to the world as it is. They represent a dodging of the issu~e rather than a real solution of the problem. 12. A true solution of man's problem demands a unification of his life forces, and "the employment of energy belonging to a primitive instinct in a new and derived-nonprimitive--channel."'8 This transference of energy to a higher channel is called sublimation. It is what William James has in mind when he speaks of "the saving power of a higher emotion." Sublimation is a difficult subject to treat in general terms, for in each man it presents a different set of features. It may be temporary, recurrent or permanent, but while it lasts it is complete consecration to an ideal or line of conduct whose end is in the outside world. It involves the use of materials, even. though they are such fine materials as language, sounds or-as in the case of the philosopher-the elements of thought. Indeed, its virtue as a solution lies in the fact that it seeks to work upon the world as it actually is. The unmarried woman, a devoted lover of children, who throws her energies into teaching or child welfare work is a case in point. So also is the doctor who, often forgetting personal comfort, consecrates his best years to a war against disease and suffering. As yet we know little of the process, and still less of "~ Tansley, op. cit., p. 97. 62 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER how it can be consciously induced. We know that the education of the individual is an important factor, and that an appeal to the higher emotion, especially as a clearly grasped need of the hour, may act as a detonator, to cause the first release of energy along the new channel. For the present, we can only watch and study its spontaneous operation in the lives of those people-often the listless, dissatisfied, unstable people-who gradually or suddenly "find themselves" and become superlatively useful members of the community: the artists, heroes, devoted workers and leaders of men. In the splendid passage which follows, H. G. Wells unconsciously gives an excellent picture of sublimation: Whosoever would save his life shall lose it. Education is the release of man from self. Widen your horizons, encourage and intensify your curiosity and your creative impulses, and cultivate and enlarge your sympathies. Shed the old Adam of instinctive suspicions, hostilities and passions and find yourself again in the great being of the Universe. Philosophy, discovery, art, every sort of skill, every sort of service, love; these are the means of salvation from the narrow loneliness of desire, that brooding preoccupation with self and egotistical relationships, which is hell for the individual, treason for the race, and exile from God.14 Other examples may be taken from various fields: (a) The soldier, fired with the righteousness of his country's cause, identifies his life with its life to a point where common care for his personal safety ceases to exist. A large part of the energy originally attached to the "Wells, H. G., The World Set Free (Dutton), "LISTENING IN" ON THE READER 63 instinct of self-preservation is now attached to a larger object. Indeed, his whole being is swept along on the full tide of patriotic concentration. The work of our younger war poets is full of this spirit. Take these lines from a sonnet "Peace" by Rupert Brooke:`5 Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour, And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping, "With hand made sure, clear eye and sharpened power, To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping, Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary, Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary, And all the little emptiness of love! (b) The deeply religious man, notably the mystic, is caught up in much the same way so that he desires and works for "the coming of the Kingdom" above all other ends. Sublimated energy from sexual and gregarious sources enters into the religious emotion as evidenced by its chief characteristics, a desire for mystical union (to get "in tune with the Infinite") and passionate feeling. This is very clearly seen in connection with primitive religious rites. (c) Because of its tendency to clash with herd interests, it is the sex instinct which must most often be sublimated. The existence of some sort of relation between sex and creative art has long been recognized. An effort of artistic creation, as in music and lyrical poetry, because of the intense feeling with which it is charged, is very often quite clearly a sublimation of sex impulse.'6 "15Brooke, Rupert, Collected Poems (Dodd, Mead). "" Taisley, op. cit., p. 80. 64 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER (d) In the field of community betterment, a man of dominating personality may eagerly espouse local causes for purely selfish reasons. But clearly there is a type of man whose devotion and leadership is of a very different sort. He makes the town's interest his own. His self-regarding sentiment becomes extended to the group so that, like the soldier, he is moved to work for its welfare as he would for his own. His social instinct is deeply satisfied, and, since most local causes sooner or later concern the welfare of children and weaker members, even those feelings of tender solicitude characteristic of the parental instinct are called into play. This form of sublimation, which we may call constructive altruism, is relatively common, especially in a partial form, and may well become more so. It is an adaptation suited to all sorts of people, one easily entered upon, and besides being deeply satisfying to the individual, it is, as we have seen, the wellspring of civic life and progress. 13. Some of us early hit upon a solution, and our whole later lives are moulded more or less consciously to a pattern. Others of us never meet the problem squarely, but find what satisfaction we may in some such compromises as have been suggested in Section 11. One solution may not suffice for a lifetime. Moreover, it is conceivable that our mode of adaptation may vary from time to time. In a superficial sense, one person may adapt in a number of ways. He may take a holiday somewhere in the country where he is free from social restraint. He may temporarily lose him " LISTENING IN " ON THE READER 65 self in a book or play. He may be temporarily moved to action by a patriotic or religious appeal, or inspired to "work off" a fit of the blues by composing a jingle. But as life advances, great habits of adjustment are formed. As in the case of physical habits, a situation of a given sort tends to call forth in us an attitude and response which, with sufficient knowledge of the individual, could be foretold with considerable accuracy. IHere in rough outline is the townsman's inner aspect. It is not a view which would be recognized by his neighbors, friends or family; least of all, perhaps, by the townsman himself. Yet around this central theme, the story of his life is daily being written. Through a study of man's psychophysical aim-that of adaptation-and the ways in which he strives to attain it, we are able to get below the surface wants of the townsman-as-we-see-him and into the fundamental wants of the townsman-as-he-is. These we shall simply state without burdening the reader with extended comment. The townsman needs, first of all, a chance to work and to be respected as the producer of goods and services which the community wants and for which it is willing to pay. He needs a job not only for the money there is in it, but because it gives him the assurance which comes from "belonging" in the community. Coupled with this, he needs a chance to turn his earnings into the largest measure of satisfaction for himself and his family. This means not only that he have a wide choice among buyable goods, but that he have access to all possible information to guide him in his choice and in the fullest use of such facilities as the 06 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER town, its municipal government and all other public serving agencies and institutions afford. lie needs an opportunity to maix freely with those of the opposite sex under conditions at once clean and joyous, to marry early and with every chance of happiness which good external conditions can give. He should be able to build his home in an atmosphere in which domestic problems are regarded as worthy of careful consideration, and in which happy home life and everything ministering to it receives respect and hearty encouragement. He needs an opportunity to know, and to plan and work for the children and other weaker members of the community for his own sake as well as for theirs. He needs a chance for friendship. He must exercise his natural interest in people: those with whom he is associated and the wider circle of those whom he knows only slightly or not at all. Their daily doings are vital to him, not simply because indirectly they may affect him or he may learn from them. Through his capacity for primitive sympathy, he is able actually to share in their feelings and thus to extend the field of his own experience, the measure of his tolerance and his ability to serve them. He needs a chance to play. 'Watching games played by others has a certain limited value, but the best play is that in which the individual can take an active part, however small. The pursuit of a hobby has this virtue of personal effort, but usually lacks the stimulati~ng effect of group activity. Man needs to be encouraged to create, to invent, to " LISTENING IN" ON THE READER 67 develop and use his ingenuity and powers of independent thinking along any line congenial to him. While perhaps fewer first-rate artists, scientists and thinkers are being produced to-day than at some times in the past, the chance of the creative artist and thinker to do creditable work and to receive recognition is altogether better in our democratic society with its great diffusion of wealth and educational opportunities. Moreover, this chance is increased by the opening of new fields. There is a growing tendency to enlist artists and inventors in the service of the common man, with a view to making his surroundings more attractive and his everyday life less burdensome. Man needs an opportunity not only to create, but to enjoy the creation of others, and to cooperate with the group in informal artistic expressions such as community singing. Perhaps most of all he needs a chance to devote himself, even in small ways, to the service of the greater community. He needs to be trained in the habit of feeling, thinking and acting for the town as though it were an extension of his private household, which he instinctively recognizes it to be. He needs detailed information regarding its problems, so that he may find and play his part in their solution. It is good for a man to amount to something in his community, and to do this he must find his place and "get into the game." He needs to develop his powers of leadership and his capacity for service in his own interest as well as in that of the group. Whether or not the townsman himself is conscious of these needs, it is by their measurable gratification in 68 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER the town as it is, that he grows and finds enjoyment. From his environment he gathers the raw material out of which to fashion life. Clearly, therefore, his growth is conditioned upon an understanding of his surroundings, human and material. Knowledge of the town and its people is the very stuff of his life, and the community paper constitutes the only channel through which he can receive a steady flow of intelligence from beyond the narrow circle of personal relationship. Whatever may be the local publisher's intuitive knowledge of "what the public wants," nothing short of a thorough grasp of such facts as these will, we believe, equip him to serve the reader to the fullest possible extent. CHAPTER V THE NEWSPAPER AS GUIDE., PHILOSOPHER AND FRIEND In the preceding chapter, we outlined the mental structure of a human individual and deduced from it the needs which ideally he must satisfy in order to realize a full life, Since all the people of the community have like needs and are striving to meet them in similar ways, we should expect that each one would find in the record of these strivings and in practical commaent upon them, just the data which bear on the individual's own situation and which therefore interest him most vitally. Sources of Legitimate News Interest.-This is exactly what happens. Stories of people, their joys and sorrows, their goings and comings, their ways of doing things and views on matters of general interest-in short, their reactions to the common lifeý-powerfully~ attract the reader. The same is true of utility matter, a term here used to' indicate matter offering information or suggestions as to the material conduct of indi*vidual and family life, as, for example, an article oii how to produce a given amount of beauty, comfort and convenience in a house at two-thirds the ordinary cost, or a new way of killing weeds in the lawn. Discriminating advertising matter, capable of giving the reader assistance in his buying problem, also greatly interests him. 69 70 THE COMM3UNITY NE3WSPAPER Need of Utility Informationý,4 ' The individual's most important economic question, '~the one which daily re-~ curs, is how to get the most out of life for a given expenditure. A comprehensive treatment of this subject certainly falls within the scope of the community paper. It is largely a local matter. The data bearing on it are, for the most part, procurable within the town itself, and the results, in the form of utility news and paragraphs of practical suggestion, will mean a saving in time and money to dozens or hundreds of readers instead of to the three or four who might be informally discussing the same matter at the store or over the teacups. By this means the newspaper can contribute inmmeasurably to the collective thrift of the community. The newspaper man, who, for example, sees to it that the housewives in his community know the particular commodities which are produced to the best advantage in that territory, how and where to get them and how they may be used in preference to foreign articles which must bear added packing and transportation expense, can do much to promote intelligent saving amounting in the aggregate to a considerable sum. There are hundreds of practical questions to which the resident in a town of any size needs an answer if he is to meet his responsibilities or -use the resources of the town. Over two hundred such questions were covered by a local manual recently issued by the board of trade in a town of 15,000 and there are perhaps double that number in an average town of that size. Many of these questions may seem trivial and such as in the country village would be asked of the neighbor over the back GUIDE, PHILOSOPHER AND FRIEND 71 fence. But with the growth of the town they become more numerous, more important, more complex, and the knowing neighbor is less available. Among these questions are where to go for topsoil, how to dig a root cellar, what is the town ordinance on the licensing of dogs, who attends to the removal of rubbish, and so on. The local paper may and should become practically allknowing on matters of this sort. The townsman needs to know, among other things, where and how to get what he needs for everyday use. Distribution is largely in the hands of specialists, and the consumer constantly finds himself confronted by difficulties. Each family is an establishment which spends hundreds or thousands of dollars each year for shelter, food, clothing and numerous other commodities and services. The paper should aim to give the buyer, who in most cases is the housewife, all needed information as to the goods and services within her reach, as to how to base her selection, how to prepare raw materials for use and where and at what price they can be procured. This is an age in which the practical details of homemaking are more or less complicated and there is a wide difference in the efficiency of housewives. There would seem to be a great advantage if all women could benefit, in matters of buying and management, by the methods of the more progressive and competent. At present the principal mediums for the discussion of these household problems are the women's magazines. But only a few copies of these are circulated in a given community and since these magazines are national in scope 72 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER and circulation, they cannot, for example, tell the reader what things are available at low cost in her own town at any given time, and where they may be had to the best advantage. The same criticism may be made of some of the syndicated feature material used in many local papers. For these reasons it would seem that this new function of advising and encouraging the housewife should be performed by each local paper for itself -or at least by a few papers covering similar contiguous territory-and can be so performed to the de-. cided advantage of the home-maker. Every town has its leaders in home management, women who are noted for doing certain things well. Interesting reading matter, as well as pat and valuable information, can be worked up for the text columns of the paper by drawing upon the experience of progressive local housekeepers and other local and outside sources. This will be supplemented by the advertisements of local merchants and others, which should in time come to be as specific, informative and eagerly read. as the "utility news" story. Indeed, advertising, in so far as it gives accurate, wanted information, has a high and legitimate news value. It surely falls within Horace Greeley's dictum, "make your paper a perfect mirror of everything.., that your citizens ought to know." As discussed at greater length in Part IIf, one of the tasks of the local publisher is to educate advertisers to the point where they see that the sort of advertising the consumer wants, that which gives a maximum of helpful information, will in the long rim sell the most goods. In a community where purveying is GUIDE, PHILOSOPHER AND FRIEND 73 well developed, the housewife should be able to gain more by studying her local paper than by "shopping." But first she must be educated to use its reading and advertising columns. In addition to regular reading matter and advertising, editorial paragraphs on questions connected with local purveying can be used to point out ways in which the consumer and the merchant can coioperate to reduce prices and otherwise improve local conditions. The local paper should also discuss men's interests incident to running the home, such as the building of a garage, heating plants and plumbing, the planning, planting and care of grounds, management of an automobile, and the numerous subjects where methods or appliances are involved. Similarly the townsman's problems in connection with the purveyors of water, light, telephone and other services are to be treated in reading columns, editorials and advertising. As will be seen, this treatment corresponds to the threefold service for all public serving agencies and institutions urged in Chapters ii and iii. Here the matter is brought up to emphasize its utility to the reader. In the foregoing paragraphs we have had chiefly in mind the enlightening of the reader along the line of everyday practical problems, but the same considerations apply to the purveying of information and advice on the larger and perhaps less immediate questions connected with home-building, renting and maintenance. In every community of any size, men and women have studied out, planned, built and established homes, each i4: THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER requiring the investment of hundreds or thousands of dollars. All these homes have been constructed so as to meet conditions peculiar to the town in which they are located-conditions such as the lay of the land, streets, transportation, light, gas, water and sewerage arrangements. Clearly this information should be coblected and worked over to help answer the questions arising in the minds of all householders, and especially in that of the prospective home-builder. Then there is the producer side of the economic problem. Although the newspaper can presumably do less for workers as such than for consumers, it should be constantly on the alert to get from local industrial firms and other sources, information which will be of value to workers in this or that local occupation.' Text and editorial matter gleaned from these sources will go far to substitute authoritative news for vague rumor which often causes so much havoc. Now and then a statement in paid space over the signature of a concern will and should be forthcoming. But the subjects on which the townsman can think and act intelligently only after he has received considerable information include his relations with all the town's public serving agencies and institutions. Indeed, we may say that the individual's contribution to and utilization of the resources of his community directly depend upon information regarding them. The following brief editorial comment on a situation~ involving relations with a public service corporation is I The publishing of crop reports and similar matter in farming sections has for some time been done with success. GUIDE, PHILOSOPHER AND FRIEND 75 calculated to give the townsman a wiser basis for his action: That Trolley Siding The hot debate in the Board of Aldermen Friday evening as to granting the trolley company permission to lay a new switch on Third Street revealed a spirit which is unfortunate. Although the company has at times shown an arbitrary and autocratic attitude wholly out of keeping with the obligations of a public servant, the disposlition on the part of some of our people to retaliate by refusing the company permission to lay this siding, is really short-sighted, since it only condemns the patrons of this line to delays at present unavoidable. Ways can surely be found to show the company what its obligations are without absolutely obstructing progress. The local resident is interested to know what spiritual. uplift and moral energy is offered by each of the several churches, and in what social and other ways it proposes to work out its mission. In other words, he wants information about the churches, much in the same way that he does about the purveyors of commodities or public service. He wants to be told about. the school, the library, the art museum, the club, the hospital and so on. lie needs to know about the local philanthropic organizations so as to be able to judge of his obligations toward them.I We cite the following examples in this connection: 76 TH COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER Next Year in Our Churches It is notable that more and more the church is coming to serve not alone its own attendants, but to put forth effortsi for the uplift of the town as a whole. Never have the churches of our city been better equipped and prepared for their beneficent work than they are today. It has seemed to us that some inquiry into the characteristics, operation and methods of the different churches might be of interest to those seeking alliance with some one of them or wishing to contribute to their support. These questions are especially pertinent since the profession of belief in a certain creed is less and less the sole ground for the selection of a church with which to unite. Last year the fifty new members of the Congregational Church came from seven different denominations, thirty new members of the Presbyterian Church formerly belonged to churches of five different denominations, while the Baptist and Methodist Churches drew their new members from several different denominational sources. Elsewhere in this issue we give the creed of each of the leading churches which has one. There are two liberal churches which require no subscription to creed. We also give brief statements of each pastor as to the aims and methods of his organization. In the matter of finances, we give the annual expense budget of each church, the expense per capita of membership, and the sources of revenue. It will be noted that only the Episcopal Church retains the renting of GUIDE, PHILOSOPHER AND FRIEND 77 pews as a source of revenue, whereas the other churches depend upon plate collections, a list of regular subscriptions and occasional donations. We give the number of regular contributors with the highest and lowest and average amounts. We trust this report, brief though it of necessity is, will aid our readers *in finding the place where they can get and give most and where they will find themselves with a congenial group of people with whose aims they are in sympathy. 2. Hospital Accommodations The person who knows he will wish a room in the hospital or a bed in a ward should arrange as long in advance as possible. The facilities of this useful institution are so taxed that at any given time there is scarcely more room for additional patients than the management feel obliged to -reserve for accident cases and sudden emergencies. About all these things in his community the reader needs information. And his need is so vital that some dependable agency must be responsible for his getting it if he is to live a well rounded life, receiving and giving all that is involved in good citizenship. This is peculiarly true in the case of local governmnent. The functions of the municipal government are often spoken of as municipal housekeeping. This is the housekeeping which is done collectively by all the people of the town through their chosen delegates or agents, for 78 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER the advantage of all. In town life, civilization has advanced far in the direction of comforts and economy. Here people of moderate means are afforded many advantages which would be wholly beyond their reach except for their ability to divide the expense among the group. Thus schools, churches, paving, adequate lighting, fire and police protection, water supply, sewerage and many other facilities are added to the conveniences and comforts of the modern home. The local officials through whom these and other collective services are conducted should be presented to the people in their true significance. At the time of local elections, for example, it is undoubtedly a good plan to sketch the duties of each officer to be elected and to point out the fitness of candidates for these particular duties. Timeliness would make news of such an account of the nature of each office, and a really pertinent discussion of the qualifications of candidates would be a great relief after the political matter usually in evidence at such times. Why the Interest in Municipal Government Must Constantly be Maintained.- In order that the functions of local government shall be carried on for the greatest good of the greatest number, it is essential that the interest and sympathy of all the people shall be constantly maintained. It is necessary for the townsman to know enough about all the affairs of the town to take an intelligent part at the polls and in the less formal activities connected with the local government. The information which thus enables him to enter this phase of com GUIDE, PHILOSOPHER AND FRIEND 79 munity life can only be furnished by the local newspaper. To it he must look for a dispassionate view of public officials and of their work, the setting and full significance of this or that measure, and an intelligent forecast as to the probable results of proposed improvements, based on masses of special information of which he cannot have first-hand knowledge. The record of the doings of the town government constitute important news, and through proper interpretations a-ad background should be given human interest and proper record. Merely to record that the council is talking about a new sewerage system is an item of little value unless the editor has taken pains to tell those necessary things which enabled the reader to get an intelligent idea of what the item means. In other words, the local editor should not forget that it is as necessary to give the information to make the item intelligible as it is to give the bald facts of the item itself. It is obvious that the importance of this function of the local paper cannot be overestimated. In the last analysis it is much more vital to the townsman that he have the right sort of local paper than that he have the right sort of mayor. Taking his part in community housekeeping, this management of the.larger home, which town life entails, should be a source of satisfaction to the individual. Through suggestion and the training and recognition of leaders and workers, the paper can go far toward directing and inspiring the townsman's collective endeavors. In the foregoing paragraphs, we have attempted to trace a few of the classes of subjects on which the towns 80 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER man needs to be kept constantly informed. Others will doubtless occur to the reader who bears in mind that, according to this view, the local paper is to become the specialized journal of the individual in his complicated business of being a town dweller. The publisher of the local paper should feel commissioned by his readers to provide them with such an information service. Preparation of Utility Information.--First he must gather the facts. Whereas some of these will be quite easily accessible, many more will require initiative and patience. He must then have this material worked over into usable shape, kept up to date and printed as current interest demands. In this connection it must be borne in mind that developments are as important and can be made as interesting as happenings. Trends in real estate, agriculture or other phases of local life, although not apparent to the casual observer, can be so played up as to be of at least as much interest as happenings, and much of this work can be done at odd times and by subordinates. But the interpretation of these facts and movements and comment upon them will often call for the highest powers of insight and journalistic skill of which the editor is possessed. Interesting matter can be worked up through ani inquiry into changes in any institution of any phase of local life. For instance, what are the changes in the conduct of homes? How about domestic help, the amount of work done in the home, and so forth, as compared, with say ten years ago? What changes have taken place in the school, in its studies and methods? GUIDE, PHILOSOPHER AND FRIEND 81 How are church aims and methods changing? Is the place of the creed more or less important? How about amusements? How do homes built now compare with those of the recent past? Is there a tendency toward the multiple family house? Is the co&perative apartment coming? How does the average value of land in town per foot front, or of farms, compare with the figures of ten years ago? What is the need and the tendency as to the amount of service given by retailers? In what respects do retail stores meet modern needs? How about the efficiency of distribution? All these inquiries and many more will yield good matter and any inquiry for the data will develop news not otherwise discoverable. Much material not immediately available will go to enrich the morgue and, when used, will show that the paper knows its subject thoroughly. In the preparation of utility matter, it must not be forgotten that, much as the townsman stands in need Of it, he will read and profit by it fully only when it appears in attractive form. As in the case of advertising copy or of religion,2 or political propaganda, the message must be given sufficient force to carry it all the way into the reader's mind and cause him to act upon it. It must be given news value, as can be done by emphasizing its timeliness and important bearing on the reader's personal welfare, by linking it with people or events then in the public eye, and in other ways by appealing directly or indirectly to the reader's in2For further examples of ehureh and other noncommercial advertising copy, see ChapteT xvii. 82 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER stincts.' Some of the most useful pieces of information which at present we find accessible in the local paper come to us accidentally, as it were, in connection with personal items to which we are spontaneously attracted. This fact, as well as others known to the advertising copy writer, may well be consciously applied by the newspaper man who wishes to make his utility matter serviceable to the reader. In summary we might say that the thorough treatment of any practical subject should include in some form, either stated or implied, the following elements: (1) initial appeal to the reader, (2) content, (3) background or setting, (4) interpretation and comment, and (5) practical application to the reader. Need of Personal News.-In addition to his need of information in the ordinary sense, the townsman eagerly desires that knowledge and consciousness of his social environment which he gets from reading about the activ4 ities of his fellow townsmen. He also likes to have his own doings and opinions find their way into the paper. Some one has said that chronicles about individuals and their doings are the most interesting news of the day. While it is easy to poke fun at the trivial character of news items in the little home paper, and this ridicule is often justified, the fact remains that the value of a news item cannot be judged without taking into con*The skillful advertising copy writer learned this years ago, In an unsupported advertisement he does not simply say, "Use Del Monte Apricots." Rather he says, "'A simple dish -but just try it Apricot bread pudding Made with delicious Del Monte Apricots." GUIDE, PHILOSOPHER AND FRIEND 83, sideration the relationships of local life and the nature of human intercourse. What do people talk about when they meet on the street or in the home? Not, as a rule, about matters of importance, judged superficially; but the fact that Mrs. Jones went to Smithville yesterday may mean a great deal to the people who know about Mrs. Jones and her interests in Smithville. In fact, what we read is interesting not alone by reason of its necessary content, but because of what it suggests and what it means to those of us who happen to be susceptible to its suggestions. Not only that. But when the townsman reads the items in the paper, even those about people he does not know and organizations to which he does not belong, and takes note, for the moment, of their doings, he enjoys a sense of community of the larger social household, without which man's existence, like that of any other social animal, would be a strange and barren thing. Here is the paper in which hundreds of his fellow townsmen, by virtue of his fact that their names appear in its pages, are represented. He feels, somehow, as though he were in their presence, and he has a sense of mingling with them as at an informal gathering. Thus a real but intangible atmosphere pervades the news and gives it appreciable value over and above that of its bare factual content. The paper becomes more than paper and printed words and one man's opinion, and the use of the editorial "we" more than a rhetorical habit. It expresses the reality of community. Whereas the use of the pronoun "I" provokes argu 84 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER ment, "We" tends to make the reader feel a part in editorial expression, as in the following: Billboards and Common Sense Leaving aside the question of rights, we would question the wisdom of erecting a mammoth billboard at the corner of Main and Fifth Streets. No doubt when the board is completed it will tell us, with all the violence of which bright paint is capable, that some one or some article is reliable, and that he-or it--"aims to please." This latter statement, in view of the glaring offensiveness of the signboard, we shall be disposed to doubt. An eyesor4 of this sort goes far toward nullifying the work which some of us have been trying to do to improve the appearance of Main Street. We wish that the builders of this and other signboards could be brought to realize this before it is too late. Indeed, in view of the strong feeling for town improvement which exists here, it is doubtful whether the value of billboards as advertising mediums in this town is not largely offset by the feelings of resentment which they arouse in us. Goin' a step further, notice how the use of "we" impart, a glow and feeling of cooperativeness to the followigg: ""Let's Go!" Some of us are watching with interest the completion of the work of cleaning up the wooded stretch along the north shore of Bennett Lake. This picturesque GUIDE, PHILOSOPHER AND FRIEND 85, grove, easily accessible by trolley and auto, gives us just the picnic ground we have so long needed, and, with the return of the warm days, many of us are eagerly looking forward to boating, bathing and eating supper under the trees at Bennett Lake at least as often as once a week! For those of us who do not care to take a basket supper from home, a booth is to be provided at which refreshments may be obtained at reasonable prices. Every effort will be made to keep the grounds clean and attractive and we picnickers will no doubt quickly catch the spirit of the plan and see to it that no papers or orange peelings are left scattered about to sadden the hearts of our / friends and neighbors. It is clear that the individual's feeling about the paper and his capacity to enjoy the group emotions does not spring from a rational source. It is due to herd instinct and consequent suggestibility. We have already spoken of his sensitiveness to the experience of another individual and of his ability to gain enjoyment from this, whether the experience which he borrows is in itself pleasurable or not. This trait is of positive value both to the individual and to society;4 without the primitive sympathy from which it is derived, group life would be impossible. But like the rest of man's mental mechanism, it is intended to end in action, in finer adaptation to the environment, and not to spend itself in superficial enjoyment. ' Among animals, this extreme sensitivity of members of a herd to each other is of great value. It facilitates the spread of an alarm throughout the herd and enables it to assume an attitude of defence in an incredibly short space of time. L86 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER The Editor's Power: 'Whence, It Comes.-For reasons already stated, people are predisposed to take an interest in the news and to look to the newspaper for all sorts of information about their social and material environment. All are endowed with the same fundamental emotions which are capable of being aroused by, suggestion. People are especially sensitive to impressions from sources which, because of inherent prestige or because of previous satisfactory experience, they feel to be trustworthy. For the intimate local paper, expressive of the town's doings and spirit, readers come to have an especially warm and friendly feeling. From this situation arises the, editor's power. Like all power depending upon suggestion, it is greatest when least in evidence. Its Susceptibility to Misuse.-It is a power often misused. The editor of the illegitimately sensational paper encourages the reader's capacity for vicarious experience to run riot and to attach itself to all sorts of unproductive if not harmful material, lie sees to it that every item of news carries its maximum appeal to the reader's love of sensation for its own sake and to his raw fundamental instincts. He supplies the reader with such facts, pictures and details that as he peruses the account he cannot fail to live over the event on its sensory side.' Usually the story ends here; for the editor it has achieved its purpose without linking up the event to the community in which it takes place, 11In a story of crime, the mere fact that in the end " Ivirtue " or " Ithe law"1 triumphs, does not cancel the pernicious influences of the reader'Is projecting himself upon it. This criticism has recently been made in the ease of several "good" motion picture films. GUIDE, PHILOSOPHEIR AND FRIEND 87, pointing out its deeper significance or suggesting to the reader any form of helpful action. For the reader the natural cycle is broken; he has felt strongly, but his feeling has led to little thought and to no action. This abortive process will in the long run weaken his power to think and act effectively in response to strong feeling, to translate sensory experience into actual living. Implicit in many a story of theft or of automobile accident is a practical warning or suggestion to the reader, though, of course, this is not always the case. It is undoubtedly true, however, that every story a person reads, together with the atmosphere which is given to it, "registers" in his mind and contributes to the shaping of his personal and social attitudes. Consider the follow~ing matter, adapted from the New York Evening Post: I Held on Murder Charge After Shooting Father Discharge of Whistling Stenographer Said to Have Caused Quarrel 'Sept. 7.ý-Held on a charge of first degree murder Roy B. G- is in the county jail awaiting preliminary hearing September 23. The shooting, which took place in the real estate office operated by father and son, is said to have followed a quarrel, 88 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER over the discharge of Mrs. Helen Smith, a stenographer in the younger G--'s employ. According to Miss Florence Jones, a clerk in the office, the elder G- had discharged Mrs. Smith because she had been humming and whistling. Soon after Mrs. Smith was discharged, the younger partner entered the office and learned of his father's action. He went into his father's private office and a few minutes later six shots were heard. The younger G- then went to Police Headquarters and surrendered. He told the police there had been a long-standing quarrel between him and his father over alleged mistreatment of his mother. This item illustrates how a crime story may be interestingly told and all the essential facts brought out without that distortion which comes of overemphasis of the emotional elements. It is important in a story of this sort that the reader shall not, through absorption in the actor's feelings, lose sight of the situation as a whole, with which complete view the community is mainly concerned. The Appeal of the "Yellow" Journal to Man's Desire for Vicarious Living.- The appeal of the "yellow" journal, much as we may deplore its bad effects, rests upon facts so deeply inherent in human nature as not to be readily overlooked. It begins with the reader as he is. It drives its message home to him. But the solution of the problem of adaptation which it holds out to him is weak and partial and temporary. It consists in mental escape from his drab and humdrum life into a prim GUIDE, PHILOSOPHER AND FRIEND 89, itive world of love and adventure, rather than in a conquest of his actual environment. The local paper is in effect the menu from which the townsman is to select a balanced ration of community life. Although the editor is under tacit contract, because of the variety of human needs, to put within reach everything the local market affords, the preparation and service are in his own hands. Which shall he strive to make the more attractive: rank, tainted food, or food which is wholesome and life-giving? What the townsman will see in the town is largely what the skillful editor wishes him to see. Your town and ours contain, first and last, every sort of human element. There are the best people and the worst, the heights and depths of experience, the bold endeavors, the failures and successes. Happenings, vitally interesting to a few and potentially interesting to the whole community, receive their recognition, their setting and their full significance only at the hands of the editor. Although it may be true that one "can't change human nature," the editor should be able, through an understanding of man's mental life as it is, to base his appeal not upon raw instinct, but upon instinct, partially diverted and sublimated, as it finds expression at the social level of the most loved and respected citizens. Scope of the Editor's Aim.--In conclusion, the builder of the larger local paper will be content to work toward,nothing less than a complete and positive community lorgan. His aims for it will include sympathetic cobperation with the townsman, intelligent promotion of 90 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER institutions, whole-hearted identification of its interests with those of the greater community, and its representation in the outside world. To urge the development of an editorial service of this character is not a counsel of perfection. We do not call upon the altruistic to perform a philanthropic act. Rather the aim is to urge the production of a paper along these lines because, in our belief, such a paper will, when proper sales ability is brought to bear in the enlisting of its readers, prove to be an advertising medium of altogether new potency and earning power. It will be so effective for advertisers, and therefore so profitable to its owner, as to constitute the basis of a real business. In later chapters we shall consider this proposition at some length. PART II CREATIVE EDITORIAL SERVICE CHAPTER VI THE EDITOR No one has ever spoken in sufficiently forcible terms of the importance of the local editor. It is doubtful if it be possible to do so. Mayors and local administrations come and go; leading citizens bring their abilities and force of character to bear on this or that question; ministers exert a certain influence over their several congregations on Sundays. But the power of the well developed paper is steady and perpetual. To the man behind the paper, the man to whom we have delegated the task of providing our serial story of local life, we have at the same time necessarily given the opportunity to select the material of that story, to invest it with his own spirit and to give to it his own interpretation. From first to last, the paper expresses his conception of life in general and the life of his town in particular, and those who habitually read it cannot fail to feel and respond in some degree to the influence which the editor 'both consciously and unconsciously exerts. As the paper grows by cultivating its field more intensively, and increasing numbers of townsmen come to depend upon it for news, information and suggestion, its attitude tends insensibly to become the prevailing attitude of its readers. Few editors realize the extent to which readers see their town through the paper's eyes, and follow its lead in regarding with love 93 94 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER and respect, indifference or even contempt, the community and its institutions. That town is, therefore, unfortunate which has as local editor a pessimist or a cynic. Such a man, placed in a position favorable to the spread of unconscious influence, stultifies all that is best in local life. Progress and constructiveness are not in him and he is, therefore, quite incapable of recognizing them in his environment. Always he tends to ignore the happy and creative elements in community life and to give undue prominence to those instances of human weakness and failure which reenforce his negative attitude. He is blind to the town's resources and to its future. Although there are undoubtedly among his readers those whose self-esteem is fed by disparaging the plans, efforts and successes of others, this attitude is unwholesome and unproductive for the community and for the individual. To foster it is to commit a social wrong which cannot readily be undone. The man who finds himself habitually occupying a negative position is certainly disqualified for the office of local editor, whatever may be his strictly journalistic aptitudes. The two editorials below show how the same event admits of two kinds of treatment: one destructive and superficial, the other constructive and fundamental. iWhich is more helpful to the reader? It will be no surprise to many of our readers to learn that the Eastham Co~operative Store has been forced to close its doors. Change of management THE EDITOR 95 and slackness of trade through the summer months, coupled with lack of reserve and indifference on the part of many members, have brought about a failure sad, perhaps, but nevertheless foreseen by many of us from the start. This is the age of big business, of sharp, competitive individualism. We earn little enough, Heaven knows, and we must spend it for to-day's needs where in our judgment it will go farthest. Consumers' coiperation may be all very well across the ocean or in some other century, but this is America-to-day--and we cannot afford to spend valuable time and money in the pursuit of Utopian schemes. 2. The Eastham Cooiperative Store has failed and its failure has brought to earth the hopes of many loyal members, among them several of our most earnest and far-sighted fellow townsmen. Indeed, it was in large part because of the character of its membership that we have watched the progress of the Society with friendly interest since its inception two years ago. Throughout its brief lifemuch of which has been disagreeably eventful, we must admit-many of these people have stood ready to make all sorts of sacrifices for the high principles which they felt to be at stake. An idea capable of holding this sort of allegiance must have in it the germs of stability and promise, and, however crushing the outward failure, these germs are bound at last to germinate and grow. The causes contributing to the failure are too numerous and complicated to be 96 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER given here. But failing or succeeding, the Society has shown us two things: that intelligent consumers, many of them individualists in other connections, can work together harmoniously for the good of the whole-and this is a fact of no small importance in a democratic country; and that their insistance upon the slogan "let the buyer be served" instead of "let the buyer beware" is capable of exerting a strong influence upon neighboring stores in the direction of lowering prices and improving service. We regret that the good work of the Society is not to go on. We extend to its officers and loyal friends our sympathy together with the assurance that, from the standpoint of the town as a whole, their labor has not been in vain. The Editor Must Be Constructive.--Life is affirmative, and the majority of normal people are full of active or potential optimism. Despite handicap and the possibility of failure, they continue to plough and plant and to expect the harvest. They found homes and communities and devote all their energies to their improvement and to the attainment, through them, of a larger and fuller life. Whatever the individual may think he believes, this is his common mode of behavior. It is through this capacity for action and faith in its results that all definite steps toward personal and social pro~ gress are taken. The position of editor, then, calls for a man who recognizes the existence of this native optimism and is, by temperament as well as by ability, prepared to build upon it. TH EDITOR 9 97, The Editor's Task.--"Wendell Phillips once said: "It is a momentous, yes, a fearful truth, that millions have no literature, no schools, almost no pulpit but the press. it is parent, school, college, pulpit, theatre, example, counselor, all in one. Let me make the newspapers, and I care not who makes the religion or the laws." The editor's task is to record and interpret the life of the commuity to its people. He is their informant, educator, potential leader: the one man in a position to portray, focuas and give perspective to the chaotic mass of local happening and development. The service of his paper is as definite, as positive, as that of the school, the railroad or the post office. It is of value to all the people within the paper's territory, whether they be many or few, so that even in a very small town this is no trivial or unimportant matter. The Editor's Resources.- The editor of the local paper enjoys certain resources peculiar to his field. Because of their natural neighborliness and relatively few distractions, town and country people show a greater eagerness to read t1heir paper and to read it thoroughly, than does their big-city cousin. They have a friendly feeligtoward it and are willing for the time being to give it their whole attention. The same people read the paper week after week. More members of the same household read it than is the case with the metropolitan daily which is often bought by one person in passing, glanced at, and then thrown aside. Thus the community paper has a steady and interested body of readers, many of whom know and are known to the editor. Its appeal is intimate and informal. 98 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER To many a local editor, his town is simply a town. Its people are just people-some a little better, a little more interesting or picturesque than others-whose daily doings it is his duty to record. Things just happen, with little relation to past or future events, so far as he is concerned. He is there to report and, if possible, to pass sage or humorous comment upon them. Many local papers have been passably edited by men of such superficial knowledge and attitude. The Editor's New Insight into Local Life.--"The social re-conquest of the continent," says Harlan Douglass,: "is no less universally necessary than its material conquest. This is the second phase of American civilization. It holds the destinies of our smaller communities as it holds those of the nation itself. There's a town under every town. To find it is no superficial task. Really to get down into it, to unlock its possibilities, to release its powers is the meaning of community betterment." The town to-day is the same as it was in the past and yet not the same. Its internal advantages have multiplied enormously; its relations with other towns, with cities and with state and nation have become closer and more important. Although it is still the working unit of democracy, for practical purposes sufficient unto itself, it need no longer be isolated or provincial in the sense of being cut off from the best life and progress of the great world. It is largely for the editor to see that this does not occur. Again, as pointed out in Part I, our growing insight 1Douglass, Harlan, The Little Town (Macmillan). THE EDITOR 99 into the town as a social organism, capable of evolution and increasing integration, and into the psychological nature of the individuals of which it is composed, is capable of revolutionizing the attitude and possibilities of the local editor. -o ng out upon the town and\ the townsme he sees them not as stupid or isolated facts, but as sificait parts of an organism and movement essentially great. Each of them silently says to him, as Whitmaiif f himself: I am the acme of things accomplished I am the encloser of things to be... Such is the knowledge and the inspiration which it is now possible for the editor to add to his more strictly journalistic equipment in meeting the various problems which confront him in his task of interpreting the community to itself. Other writers have dealt with the specific duties of the editor, and we shall not attempt to cover this ground. Rather it is our purpose to consider how an editor of the scientific and creative type will approach the business of recording and interpreting local activities. How the Editor Will Approach His Task.-The contents of the paper as a whole, and of all articles or items in it, are composed of two elements: the element of fact and what we may loosely call the element of appeal. Advertising copy may quite easily be resolved into these elements; analysis will show them in varying proportions in items of current news, in local feature articles, in paragraphs of editorial comment, even in matter deal 100 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER ing with utility subjects. In the "living" story, these elements are never separated, and neither writer nor reader thinks of them as such; but here we will gain by considering them as at least partially distinct. In the remainder of this chapter we shall consider the appeal content, and in later chapters the factual content, of the community newspaper. The fundamental sources of appeal go back to the psychological nature and necessities of the individual as traced in Part I. Man is a creature whose interests and conduct are largely determined by instincts. These instincts are, however, susceptible of considerable diversion from their original source. He is a creature of action and of faith in the results of action. He is singularly open to the influence of suggestion. One of man's most interesting traits, from the standpoint of the editor, is his faculty of noticing spontaneously those objects or facts which serve or menace, even indirectly, his instinctive interests, and which are, therefore, likely to call for adaptive action. This faculty of selective perception is the first step in the process of projection, by virtue of which, as we have seen, one individual is enabled to share vividly in the experiences of another. Perception is not passive. If two men look at the same street scene, or the same page of a newspaper, what each man really sees at once and spontaneously will be the objects or items which link up with his live interests and which may, therefore, modify his thought or action. In general, we may say that a person sees the thing he needs to see, the thing which joins on to his present knowledge. THE EDITOR 101 It is a significant fact that the community, in tacitly! delegating to an editor the task of presenting its serial story, necessarily gives him the opportunity to select the material for the story and to present and interpret it in the light of his own personality. This situation is good or bad for the reader in proportion as the editor realizes and lives up to the obligation which it places upon him to discount his own bias, and to select, recorVdj and interpret in the interest of truth and of the greatest good to the greatest number. The Sensational Appeal: Its Strength and Its Weakness.-- In the preceding chapter we consider briefly the psychology of the illegitimately sensational newspaper. We saw that, whatever its danger to individual or community, it makes a strong appeal to the reader and exercises a sway over him. Its strength lies in direct appeal to the instincts and a selection and presentation of the story and of its details calculated to feed the primitive interest. Its menace lies in its misuse of means essentially sound and valuable. We believe that the coming local editor will consciously adapt the method of the "yellow journal" to the uses of his field. He will improve upon it as the advertising copy writer has done by carrying the reader, wherever possible, from the realm of feeling, over into the world of constructive thought and action. He will, not hesitate to be "sensational"-using the word in a literal sense-in telling a story in which the action and result are desirable, and when, for that reason, our feeling with the persons in the story is wholesome and exhilerating. The following, taken from the New 102 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER York American of October 5, 1922, will serve as an example: Skill of Skipper Saves Ocean Liner Bastin of the Gothland Averts Collision with Menominee in the Atlantic By far the most thrilling story of last week's hurricane, which has come out of the Atlantic, was related yesterday when the Red Star liner Gothland arrived from Antwerp. The unanimous opinion of the 402 passengers and the crew was that only the skill with which Captain Bastin handled the big liner avoided disaster when a collision seemed inevitable, at the height of the 100-mile-an-hour hurricane, with the Atlantic transport liner Menominee. For forty-eight hours, beginning on the morning of September 24, the Gothland battled with the hurricane. Forty-one hours of this time the ship hove to, during which time the vessel drifted 100 miles off her course. Early Monday morning the Menominee was sighted in a like plight, drifting in the storm. The two ships came closer to each other until only a few yards separated them. Seeing the Menominee bearing down on him Captain Bastin ordered one of his engines reversed. Barrels of storm oil THE EDITOR 103 were hurled over at the captain's direction. The Menominee lunged past the Gothland's bow, only six yards separating the two vessels. Describing the scene, Captain Bastin said: "The waves were phenomenal. They were the highest I ever heard tell of. One moment we were high on the crest of a wave and down in a valley, far below, we could see the Menominee. The next minute the situations were reversed. It was a close call, but that was all." Though the ship did not show any outward sign of her terrific encounter, considerable damage was done. Ventilators were carried away, a steel winch was swept overside, benches on the promenade deck were washed overboard, the jolly boat was hurled over and eight life-boats damaged. All the glass on the bridge was smashed and the aft wheelhouse was staved in, so was the ship's hospital. Yet not one of the 402 passengers sustained any injury. Level of Appeal.- The editor should be able to size up the moral level of his community. Generally speaking, it is that of the most loved and honored citizens, those people, not necessarily the town's official leaders, for whom the majority have a feeling of warmth and enthusiasm. Here he should set his stakes. Such is the behavior of the group that if the matter and atmosphere of his paper are such as to gain their attention and admiring support, it will not be much above or below the instinctive interest of the body of the commun 104 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER ity, especially if the community is fairly homogeneous or well knit. Selection of Matter.-Man's faculty of selective perception enables him spontaneously to notice those elements in his environment which serve or menace his interests. Since he cannot himself see and select from the town's daily life all those elements which will affect him, it is for the editor, guided by knowledge of the town and of its level of appeal, to select and place before him whatever news and information is likely to be to his interest or advantage. The editor will not forget that people are more interested in material with a positive slant than with a negative one. They want quite as much to hear about those things which are succeeding and growing as about those which are disintegrating and dying. The editor must ever be on the alert for stories of a live, constructive nature. This matter will be treated more fully in the next chapter. Creative Presentation.-Nearly every occurrence or development admits of being wrongly or rightly recorded without actual misrepresentation. It makes all the difference in the world to the life of a community whether the editor writes in one way or the other. Having decided to use certain material, the writer's task is to present his story so that it will carry to the reader the utmost appeal of the sort appropriate to the situation. The effectiveness of the news story in the highly sensational paper may be traced to its careful selection and to the presentation of telling details which induce in THE EDITOR 105 the reader sensations and emotions similar to those experienced by its original actors and spectators. As has already been pointed out, it is a powerful method and one which the editor can use to good effect wherever the action in the story leads to results which make for the general welfare, as in the case of a rescue or other heroic deed. This method, like the superlative adjective, loses by being used to excess, and will not be employed by the skillful editor merely for sensational purposes. It is clear that in spite of his aim to present as far as possible the positive, constructive side of community life, occasions will arise in which stories of crime must be recorded. Such a story calls for a brief and simple statement of facts. Additional information should consist not of a vivid portrayal of details which cause the reader to project himself into the emotional life of the story, but of background and other facts which relate the story to local life and enable him to handle it on a mental plane. Looked at from a slightly different angle, such occasions call not for suppression of facts, but for their presentation in the proper community perspective. A story of domestic infidelity involves at least four elements: (1) the amatory behavior of the guilty parties; (2) the fact that a contract, entered in good faith, has been broken; (3) the present or future working out of the situation in the lives of the actors; and (4) its bearing on the community. The reader will doubtless take an eager interest in a treatment of this story in which (1) is so played up as greatly to overshadow (2), (3) and (4). But since the whole 106 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER point in presenting such a story should be to give the reader a clear idea of the situation, it is unfair to him and demoralizing to the community as a whole to magnify one element at the expense of the others. The following story, adapted from the New York Evening Post, illustrates the way in which a crime story may be handled so as to preserve the facts and human interest without a sacrifice of the essential point that a crime of social importance has been committed in the community: Detective Shoots Girl Then Kills Himself Model Refused to Marry Him When He Sought Her Consent on Eve of Trip After shooting his sweetheart twice because she refused to marry him, Detective Alfred J. Jones of the East Thirty-Fifth Street Station pressed the revolver against his own temple last night and fired. He died a few hours later in the Knickerbocker Hospital. Miss Dorothy Smith, a model, to whom Jones had been paying attention, lived at - Broadway. Jones had a family home at - - Street, Brooklyn, but he also rented a room on an upper floor of the apartment house in which Miss Smith lived with two other women. Last night the detective called on her and told her he was going to California THE EDITOR 10Z and asked her to change her mind about marrying him. When she refused to do so, he leveled his revolver at her and pulled the trigger. The cartridge under the hammer failed to explode and Miss Smith thought he was joking. Twice again he pulled the trigger and two bullets struck Miss Smith in the breast, neither wound being serious. She fell to the floor and Jones put the weapon to his own head and fired. Recognition of the Reader.--If the editor stops to think about it, he will realize marked advantages in discussing local subjects to be read by the people whom they concern. The late Lord Northcliff, when recently asked his opinion of what people are interested in, answered, "In themselves." This is a truth which gives the local editor an immense advantage. In a sense his readers are the subject, in one way or another, of what he writes. He can get much of his material first-hand and so give it that it will be recognized as the thought of the people themselves. In fact, the editor will aim to make his paper largely the voice of the people. He will do his thinking aloud, so to speak, and will then grow into the heart and confidence of his readers. Conscious of the rectitude of his purposes and the strength of the truth, he will strive to emulate Lincoln in giving expression, with the utmost fairness, to the views of those from whom he differs. It is for the local editor to recognize the reader's place as silent participation in the events related in each news story, as well as his actual place in the happenings of the community. 108 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER Appreciation.- William James says, "A man's social use is the recognition which he gets from his mates. We are not only gregarious animals, liking to be liked in the sight of our fellows, but we have an innate propensity to get ourselves noticed, and noticed favorably, by our kind." One of the best things the paper can do for the community and for the individual is to recognize people for what they are and for what they are trying to do. Just as all of us wish to be and to achieve, so it is our nature to want our existence and effort appreciated; often, in fact, to be known is part of the achievement itself. We wish the town to share our triumphs and, at times, even our misfortunes. We wish to share in the triumphs and misfortunes of others, especially in those of our friends. This is as true of the humble townsman as of his rich brother, and should receive as much attention and sympathy from the editor. Unless the importance or timeliness of the material calls for a special article or interview, appreciative comment can best be used in the amplification of personal items. Often, too, they fit parenthetically into an article or editorial dealing with a subject in which those interested are mentioned. It is to be remembered, however, that it is discriminating comment and not fulsome flattery which is here demanded. This recognition of people will furnish much constructive news material, especially if an attempt is made to get below the superficial facts. The active editor will take pains to know as many townspeople as possible and to be acquainted with their plans and interests. He will seek out the real specialists, often mod THE EDITOR10 109 eat adunassuming men, and see that they receive the recognition which they deserve. In our town a man just died whose books exerted a wide influence for good in various European countries, but who was little read in A erica and almost unkown in his own town. Town life would be the richer if such men were 1-ought out, recognized, drawn upon for speaking and so on. Free flow of intelligence would brin about this condition. The prophet should not be wholly without honor in his own country. The editor will be the friend and friendly critic of worthy and public spirited leaders, and his paper the instrument through which such men and women find expression. He will take special pains to introduce newcomers to the community. This may be done in somewhat the spi 0rit of the item which follows: Retired, Will Live in Easthamn The brick residence at the corner of Jones and Locust Avenues, commonly known as the Ferris house, has been bought by James L. Price, who, with his family, intends to move in as soon as minor alterations are completed. The Prices come here from Detroit, where Mr. Price recently retired from the law firm of Willis, Price and Underwood. He is a brother of Orrin Price, the novelist of the north country. Mr. Price is an enthusiastic golfer, and a collector of Indian trophies. I Mrs. Price, a graduate of Smith College, has for some time been active in the work of the Detroit Music School Settle 110 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER ment, and of the Second Congregational Church of that city. Harold Price, the only son, is a senior at Harvard, and Dorothy, the daughter, is attending East High School, where she is a member of the Junior class. Mr. and Mrs. Price and Miss Dorothy are staying with Mrs. Price's mother, Mrs. S Lydia North of 45 Locust Avenue, until S their own house is ready for occupancy. The Editor's Opportunity for Constructive Suggestion.Other things besides the startling and the criminal have interest and significance for us. By getting at "the news under the news" the constructive editor can, through timely treatment and the intimate touch, make interesting news out of the normal life of his community. He can develop the beauty and worth of the daily doings of his people and furnish the genial atmosphere in which leaders and citizens alike can do their best work. It is vastly more constructive and resultful to commend the good, to recognize public spirit, enterprise, progressiveness, than continually to insinuate or rail against the faulty. It is impossible to measure the constructive and beneficent influence which a local paper can exert by the recognition and encouragement of ideas, aspirations, plans and movements which tend toward the well-being of the community. If the editor is fully measuring up to his resources, he will always have in the back of his head ideals which are too far ahead of public sentiment or present ability to make it wise for him to broach them. His ear will, however, be ever to the ground to catch the suggestions of others THE EDITOR ill for the up-building or improvement of the community-quick to sense the really constructive idea and to further it-or, at least give voice to it-slow to discourage even the impractical dreamer. He will be large enough to give credit to others and thus to create an atmosphere in which ideas can grow to maturity and receive warm consideration. He will be patient with the impractical, adroit with those selfseekers who are unconscious of working for egotistic ends, and outspoken against the real enemy of the town. He will be quick to discover and, if possible, to encourage new movements or the progressive action of existing ones, especially where they aim at doing something together for the community. It is through such efforts, even though they fail, that the lessons of democracy are being earned. Sympathy.-One of the factors which measure the bigness of the, editor is the extent to which he sees and records everything sympathetically. A meeting in some cause in which he does not believe is entitled to a record from the viewpoint of the promoters of that cause. Whereas there is no call to indorse the views of its adherents, mention of the cause can be made in the form of a statement of its aims. Take the report of a meeting of spiritualists, beginning, perhaps, "The Spiritualists held a meeting last Tuesday for the purpose of enlarging their membership. Their aim is" etc, The item is largely for the spiritualists and can be made interesting and pleasing to them with no implication of indorsement on the part of the paper. In like manner, all people and causes which are sincere may be so 112 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER recognized as to contribute to their welfare and success. It is a great privilege of the local paper to turn the light of sympathetic interest upon nearly every subject which goes into its columns. It is not an easy matter to record sympathetically such doings as are of no interest to the editor or reporter. But this attitude is called for and pays from every standpoint. It does not involve unduly magnifying the unimportant, but should assure sympathetic attention to the full measure of the news value of an occurrence. j Inspiration.-The editor will need to believe first and foremost in the resources of community life for the advancement of the general welfare. He will need to believe in his own town and to have such prophetic vision as will enable him to see and build for its future as well as adequately to interpret its present. It will also devolve upon him sometimes to furnish hope and courage when others are depressed and tend to magnify obstacles. Many a local paper exercises a steadying influence at such times, thus keeping progressive effort moving toward a worthy goal and preventing loss of social momentum.2 A keen and critical observer of facts and conditions as they are, he will not fool himself nor seek to fool others with false hopes. At the same time, he will take care never to miss an opportunity to recognize what has been accomplished or to point out signs of promise even so minute as to be unnoticed by the casual observer. "2 The constructive editorial given on pp. 95-6 illustrates this conservation of social effort. THE EDITOR 113 Criticism.--Adverse criticism is unwise unless it is not only suggested by the facts but actually called for. To point to the bad is to pursue a destructive course unless condemnation of the present is needed to clear the way for new and better things. This is, however, very often the case. The editor who feels the call to develop the best in his town will not conceal what ought to be revealed nor gloss over that which deserves the condemnation which an unflinching record will bring. He will have the courage to spare not where such treatment is best. But even while he does this, he is to remember that any mention of a person or situation, whether in praise or denunciation, gives publicity to the object, and that his great work is to bring into strong relief that which is affirmative and creative. Nor is this a matter for soft sentiment, but for close and careful analysis and the larger and farther view. Out of a chaos of confusing facts he is to fashion a record of truth and promise. The local editor has some hard things to do, such as fully to recognize the merits of his opponents and even to admit the faults and shortcomings of his friends. He will have plenty of tough encounters in which to try his mettle, but there is immense satisfaction in doing such difficult things with the consciousness of working with the forces of destiny. One of his severest tests will be on the question of whether he will give a perfectly truthful picture of a candidate or an official, always condemning the wrong and commending the right a man does, and this without personal animus. At the present time the press of 114 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER England is probably more apt to hew to the line and to do absolute justice than is that of the United States. Here our party system of government has led to the cheap and easy practice of commending all the acts of a friend and of damning those of an opponent. As people are coming to look at editorial responsibility, few local editors of character will be willing thus to show their lack of sincerity. Of course, the contract "between reader and paper includes the implication that the paper shall tell the truth. More and more it will be held responsible for doing so, and no excuses of policy or expediency will be accepted for failure in this direction. He will learn to respect the convictions of others and to accept with a good grace the will of the majority, even though they are clearly wrong. Average men and women, accustomed to democratic rule, are finally responsive to education and to intelligent leadership, and meanwhile it is better that they should be conscientiously wrong than subserviently right. The editor will, however, not cease to advocate what he believes to be right, even though his convictions run counter to those of his friends, for only thus can he keep faith with himself and his readers and gradually build his paper into their respect and confidence. Only thus can he lay the foundations for an institution to whose influence there is no limit. CHATER VII NEWS CONTENT Leaving the subtle but highly important question of appeal, we come to consider the paper from the standpoint of its subject matter, whereby the reader largely judges it. Circulation, and therefore value as an advertising medinm, depends upon the choice, timeliness and accessibility of the paper's editorial contents and upon the reader's appreciation and use of it. For the moment we shall divide the paper's possible content into general news and utility matter, although in practice it does not admit of this division. To repeat, the term utility matter is here used to indicate matter offering information or suggestions as to the material conduct of life. An article on the care of private gutters and driveways or on the family budget would be classed as utility matter. Reader's Appetite for General N~ews.--What is the extent of the local reader's appetite for general news, and to what extent is the paper disposed and equipped to satisfy this desire? In a world whose parts are being drawn closer and closer together through improved facilities for intercommunication and through trade and other common interests, it is not unnatural that people should desire general news of 'the widest sort. But within this news area the qiiality of interest is very uneven. It is most 116 TEE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER intense where the new conditions which are presented force us abruptly to alter the course of our life or thinking in order to adjust ourselves to them; or where the pictured event offers great possibilities from a projective standpoint. Where both factors are present in a single event-as in the case of a friend run over by an automobile-our interest in a report of the event reaches a high pitch. Other things being equal, therefore, and in spite of the possibility that something halfway round the world may happen to change his accustomed life and thought, the average man tends to take a deeper and deeper ijnterest in events as they approach the sphere of his daily life. It is here that adaptation is most necessary, and projection easiest. Thus national affairs touch him more closely than do world affairs, state than national, and town affairs most closely of all. He Cares Most for Local Niews.-Whatever we may claim as our conscious interests in life, there is nothing quite so absorbing as our interest in people. It is a spontaneous interest, always ready, whatever we are engaged upon, to rush to the front of our minds at the slightest provocation. We like to stand at a window and watch the crowd go by. There is a satisfaction in being part of the crowd. Whenever we see two men arguing on a street corner we are impelled to watch and listen. This overwhelming interest in people probably is due to the fact that people are largely responsible for our joys and misfortunes. People here and there can do to uas what no other factor in our surroundings can do: NEWS CONTENT 117 they can draw out our love, our sympathy, or our aversion. Through them we live and get that indescribable feeling that we are living. We follow the doings of people in our daily associations and through the newspaper because we are interested in them as people and because in their actions we see our own possible actions. We watch others in the act of doing the things we might be doing, and through the criterion afforded by their behavior it is often possible for us, consciously or unconsciously, to verify our own philosophy of conduct. If our interest in people in general is as strong as this, how vastly more absorbing are the people we know and whose circumstances we know to be very like our own? To the average townsman, his home and what goes on within a mile or two of that center is more important for more hours every day than are the doings of all the rest of the world. It is only local life which can affect him directly and intimately and which can be affected by him. And so it happens that although reports of the doings of the whole earth now pour into the greater centers in immense volume, and there are no physical obstacles to his knowing them in detail, he is far less concerned about them than he is about the doings of his friends and fellow townsmen. In other words, a world or national event must be of great intrinsic interest to touch him as vitally as does the burglary of a local drug store. In view of the comparatively large place which local happenings occupy in the interests of most townu dwellers, it is significant that only within the memory 118 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER of some editors now living has the town paper paid any attention to local news. Prior to that time the local papers were largely made up of matter copied from the city dailies and weeklies. Gradually increasing attention has been directed toward local news, but even yet the average editor shows a tendency to think that distance imparts dignity to a subject and that mere bigness is the measure of importance. Meanwhile no one has yet exhausted the news possibilities in local surroundings and life. Clearly the town dweller needs access to at least te outstanding items of world and national news. ut even more immediate is his need of local news and "uch other information as intimately affects his daily living. What, then, shall be the attitude of the local editor toward the whole question of news supply? Or, to put the question more specifically, shall any nonlocal matter find place in the news and editorial columns of the local paper? The answer to this question must depend upon how a town is situated, especially with reference to other larger towns or cities, but it is our opinion that cases are exceptional in which it is wise for the local paper to give attention to nonlocal matters, except such as have an intimate bearing on the community life. Exclusion of Nonlocal Matter.-- We maintain this position for two reasons: first, that the local paper which determines to work its field intensively will have all that it can do, and will be amply repaid in money and appreciation for this service which it is really in a position to perform; and second, because the local paper NEWS CONTENT 119 has neither editorial nor economic justification for dealing with the extensive nonlocal field. The strength of the community paper depends upon an appreciation of the great importance of local interests in the lives of local people and of the practical monopoly in their treatment which the local paper enjoys. No metropolitan or state paper can compete with it on this ground. Because of its intimacy of touch and detailed knowledge of background facts, its utterances on community topics have-or could have---an authority wholly lacking in any other sort of paper. On the other hand, the local paper cannot, by any possibility, compete with the big city papers in the handling of world and national news; and the editorial treatment of these questions and the paper which attempts to do it will find that the effort is made at the expense of what shoult be its specialty, namely, local affairs. Furthermore, few local editors realize the serious economic handicap under which they labor when theyi attempt to print other than local news. Sound mathdmatics is all against them. By reason of small circut lation as compared with that of state and metropolitad papers, the cost for editorial work, etc., brings the cost per reader served to a figure several times as high as' that of a metropolitan newspaper printing the same'. material. Again, advertising space in the local paper must sell for much more per inch per thousand circulation than does that of the metropolitan papers. And what makes this space valuable is not alone that it reaches local people but that its approach to readers isor should be-far more intimate and the paper corres 120 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER pondingly more influential. Not to concentrate upon local matters, and not to treat them in an intimate way, is to miss the chief means of making the local paper strong. The thorough covering of community interests is so large a task that concentration of attention upon local matters is likely to be more rewarding than a policy of divided interests. Thus if the situation is such that it may safely be assumed that local readers look to metropolitan or other widely circulated papers for national and world news, there is little doubt of the wisdom of concentrating wholly upon local matters, giving no news space or editorial attention to subjects which do not bear directly on life in the community. The local editor who indulges in a little self-examination will often find that he writes on national or general subjects not because this is called for, but because he feels like writing. He has read the big paper and wants to give his own reaction. Having decided that local news, together with practical information suitable to the needs of the town dweller, shall have first, if not exclusive, place in his paper, the editor will next seek to delimit and classify local matter. Handling Local News.-His first concern will be withl general local news and personal items. The first requirement of the adequate local newspaper is that it contain a fairly complete record of the doings of the town and its people. While the editor defines his own obligation and privileges as to what he will print, he may not disregard the concensus of opinion except NEWS CONTENT 121 at his cost. The reader sees his town and its people through the local paper. He has a right to expect the picture to be undistorted and fairly complete. Under local conditions, according to Bing who has treated this subject admirably, "simple, homely things interest us; wholesome relations with our fellows is a large part of life... We like... things which play up the desirable qualities and virtues of life. We are essentially provincial and like to find in our own community those motive elements of human action which, on larger stages, have produced world events." The paper should properly light all corners of the community. It is not sufficient that it print merely the surface happenings of the town. Guided by a knowledge of personal and group psychology, it must uncover and present "the news under the news." To the editor alive to the responsibilities of his unique position, the smallest happening he is called upon to record will fall into its place as part of a significant chronicle. The goings and comings of his people are) not trivial if they are thought of in connection with the working out of the destinies of the people concerned. One example will suffice. In the printing of personals there is usually an opportunity to give fuller facts in which the reader would be interested. If a stranger '"has bought the house at the corner of Main and Second Streets," let the paper find out and tell us where he is from, what his business is, what of interest he has done and of what his family consists. It is within the province of the paper thus to introduce newcomers to their fellow townsmen. 122 THE COMMIUNITY NEWSPAPER At the same time, in this connection and in others, /e paper must guard against undue familiarity. There is a sharp line which is instinctively recognized but not clearly defined by most people, between those things which a person has a right to kno~Wand tell about his neighbors and what he has not. ' The intrusive, eavesdropping newspaper is no more admirable than is the village gossip who peddles her surmises among the neighbors. iThe paper must not omit to serve the interests of all ages and classes of town dwellers. Too often its attention is centered in the doings of the middle-aged, middleclass group who, as a matter of fact, tend to dominate the life and to determine the attitude of the town. But the paper cannot afford to neglect those in the minority either in age, numbers or personal influence. It must consider the interests of childhood, of old age, and perhaps especially, in these days of discontent and "the urban drift," it must consider and cater to the interests of youth. It must take care not to overlook happenings in which young people have found it possible to impress their newer vision upon the life of the town. In a policy of catering to all classes, the paper cannot afford to adopt an attitude of sarcasm toward "the younger generation." Papers here and there are making a special effort to serve the interests of age groups and the movement may well be extended. Starting with young children, bedtime and other stories are available in the form of plate matter, but preferable to these for the local paper are little stories with a local setting, stories of animals, of NEWS CONTENT 123 characters and events in local history. Van Loon' and others are showing us that history, written primarily for children, can be interesting to adults as well, so that this matter, if skillfully written, need not be confined to a small audience. Like an older person, the youngster loves to see his name in print, especially when he has done something which has required hard work. It makes him feel that he "belongs." At a certain stage he feels a strong urge to join or form a club of some sort. This, his first spontaneous effort formally to link up with the life of his community, is of great importance to him and to it, and the town paper may play a real part in guiding this impluse away from "gang" formation into ways of social usefulness. By recognizing their clubs, by playing up those of their doings which are of real value to members and to those outside the immediate circle, by treating their efforts toward town welfare with respect and encouragement, their members can be helped toward the right social attitude. Here and there a paper makes a special effort to get Scout news, Camp Fire news, news of other young people's organizations, and these are certainly steps in the right direction. To them may be added school athletics and other recreational news. Articles, sometimes notes planned around interviews with citizens on vocational subjects or on the town's recreational life, are often of interest. Athough a grown person should of course have charge of this, the young people themselves should so far as " Van Loon, Hendrik, The Story of Mankind (Boni & Liveright). 124 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER possible be encouraged to furnish the material wherever this is practicable. An occasional story, poetry or local feature contest may be used to which children are the contributors. In the paper's special appeal to the older men and women of the community, reminiscence is quite naturally the keynote; articles, often based on interviews, on how things used to be before the railroad came, Main Street fifty years ago, the parties at the old Rink, and similar subjects. This material is not difficult to get, largely from the older people themselves, and, as it appeals to younger people as well, may be expected to interest a considerable audience. Elsewhere we have spoken of the justice and desirability of including among the personals, items about some of the humblest, as well as the most prominent members of the community. A paper in Ohio does this with great success and to the good feeling of all concerned. Although some of this matter may not be easy to get, the local paper cannot afford to miss an opportunity to extend its service into every part of its designated field. I Importance of News Background.-News and personal items may be greatly clarified and enriched by the addition of background material not usually given. Thus when a piece of property changes hands, the paper might contain an item like the following: "John Smith took title this week to the Jones house on the corner of Main and Third Streets. It may not be generally known that this property has been the home of three generations of Joneses. Reuben Jones who died five NEWS CONTENT 125 years ago," etc. Or in the case of an automobile accident: "This accident will be the more regretted since Nat Brown is a very careful and considerate driver himself, having operated a car for fifteen years without a single mishap through his own fault." With the assistance of a well filled morgue, such supplementary material should not be difficult to furnish. News should not merely be recorded. It should be amplified and placed in such a setting as to be intelligible even to the newcomer who is unfamiliar with the people concerned. This may be even more important in handling the activities of organizations and less formal groups than it is in the report of personal happenings.; Developments.- There is another sort of news which so far has apparently failed to receive recognition in proportion to its value. We refer to local developments as distinguished from local occurrences. Happenings are always recognized as news. But there are things which develop slowly and without general notice, which may be equally interesting and perhaps far more valuable. Take, for example, the trend of population toward a certain end of town-a thing which may have gone on so slowly as not to have attracted much attention. An investigation of the matter may show that a certain section has acquired a character of its own. Perhaps here land values have doubled in a few years while remaining stationary in other neighborhoods. Here, under our very eyes, new values have been created-a fact of such importance and substantial interest, that the publication of an article or series of articles on the 126 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER subject has decided news value and reflects credit upon the paper. There are numerous other subjects out of which similar interest can be developed. The local government, the schools, the churches, the important buildings, the principal stores, all have, under the surface, stories which are important and can be made interesting. In addition, there are numerous questions which the editor can profitably raise and attempt to answer. What kind of houses are people building? How do they differ from the houses erected ten or fifty years ago? What about assessed values in different parts of town? How do assessments to-day compare with those of former years and other towns? How are churches changing in their motives and methods? How about church expenses per person served? What could be done to make the library and art museum more serviceable? What of the social, intellectual and club life of the town? Is the life of its young people wholesome, and how could it be improved? The history and exposition of local institutions, so worked up as to afford interesting and comprehensive conceptions, will help the reader to see more meaning in local life. Moreover, feature material of this sort has an added practical advantage in that it admits of being worked up, written and set during dull periods. \ /Another class of news is often neglected for the reason that it might look to the reader like advertising, or might confer upon interested parties, free of charge, the advantages of the best kind of advertising. We refer to the building and opening of stores, markets, etc. To refrain from mentioning such matters or to fail to NEWS CONTENT 12T do them justice, because the owner does not advertise, is wrongfully to deprive readers of legitimate news and to miss an opportunity to demonstrate real editorial independence. Although such accounts need not include commendation of the enterprise in question, this is not necessarily out of place. Far be it from us to add to the interminable discussion of the question as to what is news. It is pertinent, however, to urge that the local editor should not be guided by the same definition of news as is the metropolitan editor. The local paper sustains a very different relation to its readers from that of the metropolitan paper. The local paper is an acquaintance and a friend talking with and about acquaintances and friends. When it notes the progress of a business or professional man or woman, it is talking of matters which to its readers refer not to some unknown man or woman but to one whose life is of personal interest to them. When mention is made that George Brown, who is graduating from High School, is going to - College and has decided to fit himself for journalism, it is not merely a record that one more will be added to the ranks of newspaper men, but that George who is known and has been known as a boy by many readers, and whose parents are known, has made a momentous decision in his life. In like manner, all that is said about town happenings and developments has that same background of personal acquaintance of the people affected. Moreover a large part of the events recorded impinge in some way upon the life of the reader himself. 128 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER Thus it is that when the local paper tells of school, church, lodge, sport or the routine of daily life, it is the heart of the matter which should be expressed or implied. The local editor in a very real sense speaks from within the family and as a member, whereas the metropolitan paper can only be a spectator. It is not, therefore, only the unusual which is news, nor perhaps mainly the unusual. The unusual is only interesting for the light it throws upon the usual and the fundamental. The local paper, in a sense, gives the bread of life to the town dweller, the other papers the condiments. For this reason it is not smartness or fine writing that are called for, but frank, plain truth. Constructive Presentation..#jfo sell a reader his town involves giving him the highest opinion of all its people and institutions which the facts will justify. Most of us are "affirmative-minded," and in the long run the item which brings out merit and beneficence produces the most lasting satisfaction in the mind of the reader and causes him to think more highly of the paper and have pleasanter associations with it-this, besides making him more vitally interested in his home town. Need for Utility Matter.-ifo entertain and possibly to instruct the reader have heretofore been the chief aims of the local paper. Although we do not suggest giving less general and personal news, we do not regard as lesa important the furnishing of practical information.,.JWe would make it a leading concern of the paper to publish that utility matter which is needed by the reader as a guide to action. NEWS CONTENT 129 Every one in the community has constantly before him or her the question "How shall I turn such time and money as I have into the largest possible satisfaction?" This is an important question, is in a sense the important question, with every individual in the community. And it is largely a local question since it has to do in the main with local people, local surroundings, local facilities and local supply of materials. The possession of information as to the best way of spending money means a material saving, more satisfaction and the consciousness of proceeding wisely. Range of Utility Topics.-The editor who takes seriously the purveying of practical information may well undertake.the task in a comprehensive manner. He will inquire what are the practical wants of the individual and the family and what matter regarding the means of their satisfaction can advantageously be furnished by the paper. Among these wants are housing, clothing, food, grounds and garden, automobile and bicycle, amusements, recreation, education, art, social contacts, religion and town government services. The following examples may be given. If a house is to be rented, the reader needs much information as to the merits of different locations, as to what is available, as to plans, accommodations and prices. A much better background of information than he usually possesses could readily be given the prospective tenant. And when it comes to building a home, the help which the paper can give is hardly to be overestimated. In view of the perennial interest which men and 130 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER women take in house plans, it is surprising how little attention is given to this subject. The plan of a house to be built in the community has not only the interest of house plans generally, but also it has a local and personal interest. The same is true of descriptions and photographs of interesting features in the most artistic or successful local homes. Since contractors and others want the publicity which the printing of plans and descriptions will give, and since owners are likely to be pleased by it, the matter should be easy to handle and should tend to attract advertising. A St. Louis paper has a real estate department into which all sorts of building supply advertising is attracted. In connection with house planning, the garage and garden planting and, in some cases, landscape planning, are interesting and fruitful subjects. The following article, for example though brief, may prove of interest to the prospective home-builder: Trends in House Planning Most people who build homes for themselves build them too large. Too much space is given to bathrooms and halls. Things and rooms are provided which are theoretically good but which in practice are not used nearly enough to justify their cost. The trend is toward avoiding this waste of room and cost of construction and maintenance. In the smaller town it may not be desirable to copy the California plan in which rooms used in the daytime for dining or living are transformed into NEWS CONTENT 131 bedrooms at night. But it is the part of prudence to think twice before building unneeded rooms or making them larger than is permanently desirable. Clothing is not so much a local subject but, through references to local leaders and authorities, a local slant can often be given to it. Even where plate fashion matter is used, ways can be found to give it more or less local flavor. It is not necessary to compete in merit with the big national fashion papers. The idea is to use only such matter as can be made to contribute to the total value of the paper's utility feature. When it comes to the discussion of foods and household management, we find that these subjects are so dependent upon local conditions and local supply as to be clearly matters in which the local paper has distinct advantage over national publications. Even when the special magazines are looked to for information and suggestions, their contents can be supplemented and localized to the great benefit of the housewife. A prolific source of material will be the Department of Agriculture at Washington and the State Departments of Agriculture. From these, also, good suggestions in regard to lawn and garden may be obtained. In this day of automobiles, the management of the car and where to go are appealing and prolific subjects. Less appealing, but very essential alike to car owners and to townsmen generally, is the publication, explanation and discussion of the traffic rules. These may well be printed after the report of the Council meeting in which they are adopted, or may be made the subject of 132 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER a special article. Moreover, as most automobile accidents result from the violation of such rules, they may well be reiterated in connection with an accident story. We fancy that some will object that these practical subjects are dull and cannot be made attractive to readers. To these there are two things to be said: in the first place, the interest will depend largely upon how subjects are treated; and again, the aim should be to tie up practical information with persons, with news occurrences, and with the seasons to which they are appropriate. The tests of a piece of practical matter would be: first, can it be made interesting? and second, is it also valuable? To give news value to a practical item, one of two things will generally be required: it must be connected with some happening which naturally raises the subject, or it must be seasonable. Seasonal subjects are numerous. As cold weather approaches, an item may suggest sending cast-off clothing to the charity society. Another may tell what to do with the automobile in the winter, whether in use or laid up. When it first snows, readers may be told the rules about keeping the walks clear. In the spring an article may discuss the pros and cons of putting in the next winter's supply of coal, and give information as to prices, kinds, qualities and checking weight by cubic contents of bin. When the assessors complete their roll of valuations for the year, the local paper can, in addition to giving the total and comparison with last year, tell what steps the aggrieved householder may take toward getting relief from an excessive valuation on NEWS CONTENT 133 rents and sale of property. The rates of valuation and tax assessment may be compared with those of similar neighboring towns. An article something like the following might be used as house-cleaning time approaches: Turn into Money the Thing You Do Not Use It does not occur to the average householder that in a town of this size there are plenty of people ready to pay good money for furniture and other articles which he no longer needs. A friend of ours, moving into smaller quarters, had to dispose of part of his furniture. Also there were around the house a quantity of miscellaneous articles, which for one reason or another had fallen into disuse. All these articles were in a good state of preservation or could be easily repaired; they were just what somebody would need. But many of them had stood around for years, occupying space and collecting dust, from one housecleaning time to the next. What was done?7 Our friend wrote a description of each of the principal articles, brief but specific, stating the price at which he would sell, and inserted this description as an ad in our classified department. The response was surprising. A stream of people called at his house, where pains had been taken to arrange and price-mark the goods. On the first day of the sale many articles were sold, among them several pieces of furniture of considerable value. Rugs, beds, wicker, X4THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER furniture and odd dishes were especially in demand. The advertisement was brought -up to date and repeated the next week to clean out the remaining articles. Of course, a few odds and ends were not sold, but as a net result scores of things which before had merely cluttered up the house went where they would, be of real service, and our friend had in his pocket some hundreds of dollars and in his house only a few unwanted articles. One need not be "selling out" or moving out in order to hold such a sale. Why not have one this spring when you clean house, or at any other time when things have accumulated'? Take stock of your household goods, and offer for sale everything which has not been found of use iin the last two years. Action on the part of the local government or of a public serving agency may be made more intelligible to the reader and given a personal application by the addition of facts which the paper might procure. Thus, when the subject of water, sewage, garbage or rubbish arises, it should not stop with a bare statement of what is done or proposed, but should give enough facts in a brief, simple way so that even a newcomer can get an intelligent idea of the situation. A new board of health regulation gives an opportunity for the paper to tell about the functions of the board of health and to show how the citizen may further utilize its services. If the trust company has started to perform a new service for its customers, it may make the reference to this an occasion to tell how various services by banks have developed in the past few years. NEWS CONTENT 135 Often utility matter may be used to advantage in connection with personal items, and this method of treatment is peculiarly appealing to the reader. It seems to carry over the spirit and tradition of neighborly gossip on practical matters. Jones takes care of his own car and always seems to have it in running order. How does he do it? How much time does he give to cleaning and oiling? At the last church supper an especially good potato salad was served. Who made it and what is the recipe? How does Mrs. Allen cook spinach? Practical subjects to be treated in this and other ways are almost unlimited. Among others we might mention in passing: primary elections; new automobile drives; express; beggars; boarding houses; needs of boards of trade; cost of living so far as local factors such as rent, water, gas, electricity, etc., are concerned; dogs; cats; hunting and fishing; cooperation with fire and police service; what the churches are doing in a fundamental way as regards attendance, expenses and aims. Each item in this list should remind the ingenious editor of many others equally worthy of attention. The point is to give so much practical information on all sorts of subjects as to add to the value of the paper to readers and get them into the habit of looking to it for such information. Arrangement.-With the high cost of printing and the increasing scarcity of wood pulp, there is wisdom in getting the maximum of newspaper service in proportion to mechanical expense incurred. On the other side, there is wisdom in saving the reader's time. The ar 136 THE COMMIUNITY NEWSPAPER rangement of material (so far as possible) by departments will contribute to these ends, and will also serve to stimulate advertising matter supplementary to the text. Real estate, better health, food, and church pages or departments are suggested. Agricultural pages have been made very successful in some daily papers. When the local editor comes to realize how much more important to his readers are local matters than are the affairs of state and nation, when he ceases to ape the metropolitan editor by trying to run the universe, he will strike the pace which makes a paper worth while to him and his community. Moreover, he will not need to appeal to the people of his town to take the paper to help it out, for he will be making a paper which they cannot afford to miss-a paper in which there will be constantly printed matter, a single item of which may be worth more to the reader than a year's subscription will cost. CHAPTER VIII MAIKING ADVERTISING SERVE THE READER This chapter is here inserted, apparently out of its proper order,' for the purpose of giving greater prominence to the advertising columns of the paper as potential sources of news and *information than has hitherto been given them by either readers or editors. Not many years ago, advertising was regarded by readers as a nuisance and by publishers as a necessary evil. There still remains some advertising which justifies these estimates. But a great change has come during the past two or three decades. Plenty of advertisers can now be found who really put themselves in the reader's place. To-day most readers of newspapers would complain if the advertising were omitted. Indeed, in the case of such magazines as The Saturda~y Evening Post and many specialized and technical publications, readers often subscribe largely for the advertising. Golden R~ule.-.Now what would happen if, in planning his merchandising and writing his advertising copy, every retailer were to recognize the truth that sound business must be based upon serving the buyer's interest-if he were actually to put himself in the place of the reader? 1For other chapters 0on advertising, see Part III. 137 Volume vs. Profits SARTER is almost as olcd as civilization itself, but the mod. ern methodof retailing, like banking, is of recent growth. Both professions have struggled against unscrupulous practices within and misunderstanding without. When banke6s began to loan out Retailers as a class have quite rm moneyatinterest, the opprobrium of 4ently like the bankers of earlier thename "rnoney-changer attached days, run the gauitlet of bitter at. itself to them. Butastheirstandards advanced, they grew in publiceasteem tack, but subasquent developments and won an enviable place in the haveproveclthatthecritieianonth confidence of the commnunity. whole was unjustified. Since itwas founded. 64 years ago, Macy's has never lost sight of the fact that its own success could only ensue upon whole-souled performance of its duty to the public. Macy's forswore the strategy of "chtrglng as much as the traffic would bear." Itpreferred to charge aslittleas Macy's could bear. It has never been hypnotized by profits, It has always been fascinated by volume. For profits are the measure of avarice, wohile volume is the yardstick of service. r INCE economy, like charity, begins at home, we have SI always striven to keep our owri costs low. In the last analysis, it is the public who must pay the bills fbr the expenses incurred by retailer, wholesaler,. mantqacturer and producer. We have never taken our responsibility lightly, We have always watched closely over our expendit\tres, for we feel we hold a position of public trust. We have been able for more than two generations to sell goods at least six percent be* low all competitors, because: (1) we always bry for cash and pay prmptly, to secure all discounts, rebates or other inducenents eommsoly offered by vewaio to ottrct ready ash. () We always well forcash,we carrsy charge aceonts. Therefore, we incur no bad accosuots, and avoid the loss of interst on large outstapding credits suffered by other stores. Q) We do not rsh blindly Into costly expenmints In merebandsins or nmansgement. but we are quick to adopt new methods who they have denontrated their superiority Me the old, * T v us=Sr TOJr aN MrstfCAo TrEar cAL vs VisltaesfneblscltysreeeVdalyfAved seelied of asns eeappinp. I toWlait Amnerla'alead --twidepqrtsnent eft d.e mic j I Oftwsaay Owtivated by the hyhot G" l atore" wIth their families- to W or veer. this Ame tupe its reward dZiy, but busiest shPping day of the asot sebikiy an Sevesay. inel. pemeare ltursdoW atc Ute peV oenst a *Wb* art - sd pSov of ea&v busy tlhewd of raqa esaewtardre kin evea mS tse0l nand= who sakt up en bakwboa ag t.ral4 jtOuo t4W YQswk., i ~ ~A ADVERTISING TO SERVE READER 139 The results would be revolutionary. For one thing, advertising would become to the reader the most interesting matter in the paper. It would enable him to buy more easily, more satisfactorily 1 and at lower prices. The returns from advertising would be multiplied; retailing would be made more stable and profitable, and it would be maintained on a higher plane. What does the consumer want? He wants first, of course, frank and honest representations as to the quality of goods and exact measurement of the quantity of goods delivered. A considerable degree of such common honesty is not in these days hard to find. But the consumer needs also to have it made easy for him to buy the right article and difficult to buy the wrong one, instead of the reverse, which is now so often the case. He needs to be able to regard the dealer as an expert choosing, and urging the consumer to choose, the right thing, the thing which is best for the cost though not necessarily most profitable to the dealer. He also wants the lowest possible prices, and these he will one day get; for, with a large volume of business and service to the customer reduced to that point at which it costs the dealer no more than it is worth to the consumer, the percentage cost of doing business and the profit margin need not be large. When the business of merchandising finally becomes inbued with the professional spirit-and already the attitude is changing as is evidenced by such advertising as the accompanying copy inserted by R. H. Macy and Co.-we shall see in retail advertising paragraphs like these: 140 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER According to figures just made up, our expenses for doing business last year were 13~2 per cent on sales. Our total sales of groceries and provisions were $93,652 with total expenses of $12,642.92. These expenses included $2,000 salary for myself but no interest on about $9,000 capital invested in the business. The net profit on our sales was $2,100.10 or slightly over 2 per cent. The coming year it is our purpose to keep the gross profits below 141/~ per cent. At the end of each six months we shall exhibit the figures in full and we guarantee that the accuracy of these reports shall be vouched for by a voluntary board of auditors consisting of James Smith, cashier of the First National Bank, Samuel Jones, Town Auditor and Mrs. Emily Snyder, President of the Woman's Guild. It has for some time been our belief that the purveying of food materials is by nature a public trust and not a private game. It is evident that our low expense percentage is made possible not only because our whole business is organized on the basis of efficiency and our service to customers reduced to the point of actual utility, but because our announcements and suggestions have been taken seriously by customers, and our business increased by more than a quarter over that of last year. The publisher of the local paper is in a peculiarly strategic position to instill this doctrine of mutuality of interest in the minds of local merchants, and by other ADVERTISING TO SERVE READER 141 means to make his advertising columns so interesting and helpful to readers as to build circulation and friendship. There is perhaps no part of the publisher's work which will yield a larger return than that devoted to making his advertising columns valuable to the reader. An advertisement like the following, inserted over the name of a reliable merchant, enables large numbers of consumers to avail themselves of a good opportunity: Apples for the Winter It is my effort each year to procure good apples to put into the cellar at as low a cost as possible and this year I have been particularly fortunate. I shall have on the Second Street Siding on Monday, the 26th, one car of Baldwins and one car of Rhode Island Greenings, both graded to 2 /4 inches or larger in size. This fruit cost me 84 cents a bushel, delivered here and will be sold for 96 cents per bushel at the car. Customers must furnish their own container as the fruit is loose in cars. Of course the price will necessarily be higher when sold from the store and handled in the usual way. JONATHAN HARVEY Reader's Appreciation of Advertising.-There are several reasons why the trend is toward the appreciation of advertising on the part of readers. Perhaps the chief reason is the fact that a growing number of distributors realize that no trade is a good trade which does not benefit both parties to it. This puts a new 142 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER spirit into advertising and merchandising and inspires the confidence of consumers. There is also a growing recognition of the fact that, when wisely applied, advertising is not an additional tax upon merchant or consumer, but an efficient tool which multiplies demand and reduces the cost of distribution per unit. Then, of course, the censorship brought about by law and also that voluntarily exercised by publishers has eliminated a mass of advertising of a character to discredit advertising generally. At any rate, advertising increases year by year-a proof that consumers read advertising and are thereby induced to buy the article advertised. But considerable as has been the improvement in the average character of advertising in recent years, the fact remains that there is still enough insincerity and even of downright deception on the part of advertisers to keep readers on. the defensive. This lack of confidence keeps down the returns from advertising expenditure and enormously increases the burden of cost. Publisher's Influence for Helpful Advertising.-The publisher of the local paper is so situated that he can exercise a large influence over the advertising contents of his paper to the end thaithey shall be of the utmost value to his readers. \ot only can he negatively, through censorship excrulde objectionable advertising, but he can adopt a constructive policy of inspiring and promoting the right kind of copy among local advertisers. He can help to incite local dealers to adopt the broad policy of small profits and large turnover through advertising. Of course there will be retailers who are ADVERTISING TO SERVE READER 143 wedded to old ways, and in their case he may have to content himself for a time, at least, with eliminating whatever is liable to deceive. But he will find ways of offering effective encouragement to the farsighted merchant who is the real servant of the consumer and an asset to the town. He will encourage advertisers not only to stick to the truth, but to adopt an attitude of frankness and helpfulness toward consumers. He is in a real sense a mediator between the seller who buys his space and the reader whose interests he is bound to serve. His influence among his retailers will be limited only by the grasp which he has of the advertising principles of merchandising. Training the Reader.-But the publisher also has the ear of the reader who is in need of education as to the use of advertising. Through text and advertising in his own columns, the publisher can point out how, when properl, used, advertising is the friend of the consun: i that through advertising such demand is created as reduces both the cost of production and the expense of distribution; that advertising is a servant of the consumer and facilitates his buying. A few forwardlooking business men have discovered that, no matter what their competitors do, the downright truth is what pays in merchandising and advertising. It rests with the publisher to impress the consumer with the fact that if he will steadily back progressive merchants others will speedily follow their example and be brought into line. Once the publisher gets a group of his advertisers into the way of taking customers into their confidence 144 TH COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER and writing advertisements in their interest, he can in turn exercise a beneficial influence over readers to encourage them to make use of this advertising. Gradually he will find it possible to change the attitude of readers toward advertising in general. What the publisher has to do is -to "sell" advertising to his readers and demonstrate the goods through his columns. Occasional references to a particularly good line of advertising in an issue will be found more profitable readin than an apology for the excessive amount of advertising. Subscription solicitors will be instructed to WHAT YOU GAIN BY READING ADVERTISEMENTS When a merchant has a chance to buy something good at an especially low price, he is likely to order a large quantity. That means that if he sells all he has, he can afford to sell it at a low price. But if he were not to advertise the f act that he has these goods for sale at the reduced price, no one would know of it. So he advertises and looks for his gain in large sales. You profit by reading of such bargains and by taking advantage of them. ADVERTISING TO SERVE READER 145 call attention to the advertising as one of the valuable features of the paper. Advertisements something like those opposite and following might be used in the paper itself: THE NIMBLE SIXPENCE The really progressive dealer, who conducts his store economically and who selects his goods with intelligent care can sell them at low profits if a sufficient number of people buy them. The only way to let large numbers of people know about his wares is by advertising them and their low prices. That is why it is worth your while to study the advertising in the and respond to its offerings. WHAT THIS WEEK'S ADVERTISING OFFERS YOU There are, in this issue of the announcements of unusually attractive offerings by reliable dealers. It will pay you to read the advertising columns with especial care and to take advantage, this week, of those offers which meet your needs. 14& THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER~ A TOWN PRIVILEGE THAT MEANS A SAVING FOR YOU I wish to call the attention of readers of the to the fact that we have in town a number of merchants in different lines of goods who have become converts to the fast turnover idea. Thcy buy with especial care, organize their stores for rapid handling of goods, mark prices low, and then, through taking the public into their confidence in their advertising, stimulate a large demand. In this way they make as much total profit as by the old method of high profits and slow sales. Such merchandising is a real asset to the town. It enables our people to get their goods at materially lower prices. (Signed) THE PUBLISHER. Elsewhere we refer to the value of departments like an automobile department. This is a means of enhancing the attractiveness of advertising to the reader since the advertisement, in a measure, supplements what the reader is getting in the text. It is often feasible to place advertisements of a kind together to the advantage of the reader. One is apt to look, not for some ADVERTISING TO SERVE READER 147 WHAT ADVERTISING DOES FOR YOU If a dealer can be sure that the advertising of his wares and their prices will be intelligently read by large numbers of people, he can afford to sell at lower profits because his expenses are less per article sold. Store expenses remain practically the same whether he sells a little goods or au great deal. The cost of the advertising is trifling compared with the increased number of sales resulting from it. That is why progressive dealers advertise. It saves you money to respond to their advertising. particular laundry ad, but for laundries in general. Especially is this true of all kinds of advertisements needed for ready reference, such as paid notices of meetings to be held. Government Advertising.-On the reader's behalf, the publisher may well stimulate the advertising of the local government and of churches and all other kinds of public serving agencies. It is probable that the advertising columns of the newspaper are to play a large part in cultivating better understanding between the public and such corporations as railroads and all sorts of public 148 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER utility concerns. The straight-from-the-shoulder statements of some of the big milk companies in New York, certain railroad associations, and the New York Telephone Company are cases in point. The interesting public service company advertisement opposite3 affords a specific illustration. The same company has recently conducted a series of advertisements in regard to the sale of its bonds direct to its employees and the public and in explanation of a necessary increase in fare. The extent to which advertising is bound to be used as a guide to action, as an informant on the ever-present questions involved in turning dollars, time and effort into satisfactions, no one can now predict. Such use is certain to grow enormously, for truthful and informative advertising is one of the greatest of labor-saving devices. Through well written and well printed advertising, the reader can acquire ideas more rapidly than by the use of any other form of printed matter. Classified advertising as it is now developing in this country promises to be an increasing source of interest and helpfulness to readers. Thus, by getting more interesting and helpful advertising into his paper and educating the reader to read and respond to that which justifies response, the publisher is helping all concerned. He is adding to the value of the contents of his paper and making it more attractive, helping readers to buy advantageously, helping advertisers to get better results, while, at the same time, he strengthens his paper and adds to its earnings. Here we have an opportunity to sell space for full price, SMontclair Times, February 25, 1921. I __ ~ _ _ ___II ___ I Trolleys and Jitneys Can Not Both Exist in Direct Competition "That street railway service and jitney service can not permanently exist and pay their own way in competition with each other under ordinary urban conditions seems to be well'itablished'by experience * * *." That's what the Federal Electric Railways Commission said in its report to President Wilson. "---seems to be well established by experience." Nothing rash about that. Sounds as though the commission had heard from Toledo, 0., where the city authorities last year turned to jitneys, only to back-track twenty-seven days later under pressure of pubjic sentiment and ask for the return of the electric street cars. And Toledo is not the only city that has had"'experience" proving the souridness of thecommission's conclusions.. 'Bridgeport proved it. Lowell provedit. Los Angeles proved it. Dallas proved it. Staten Island proved it. Salem proved it. So did scores of other cities. But New Jersey till tolerates direct competition between street railways and jitneys. Some places encourage it, although experience has demonstrated that most of the jitneys do not remain long is service. Ownerships 4hnge. Operators quit For instance, we pointed out last week that of 1,006 jitney permits issued in Newark during the'four years prior'to 1920 only 259 were still in effect The other 747 bad fallen by the wayside. And other New Jersey cities show like figures in proportion to their size. What the people want is continuous, dependable servite. Street ears provide this kind of service. Jitneys DO NOT and never will unless they are properly regulated. PUBLC SERVICE RAILWAY COMPANY m 150 TE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER while the matter it contains is adding to the value of the paper from the reader's standpoint in the same way as would an expensive feature. An immense gain to the paper will, therefore, result from the reader's respect for, interest and confidence i n, and habitual use of the advertising columns of the local paper. CHAPTER IX THE EDITORIAL PAGE As a necessary corollary to furnishing the reader with news and information, the editor is called upon to analyze, summarize and give his opinion and the opinions of others on every local question of importance. In view of the necessity for this service, it is not optional with him whether he will speak or remain silent. Value of the Editorial Page.-The well-conducted editorial page serves the reader in several ways: 1. It clarifies the news report by the analysis and comparison of facts already given in the text columns of the paper. 2. It gives such related information as is necessary to bring out the true import of the matter. 3. It points out the significance of events and movements to which the average reader is too close to get the proper perspective. 4. It calls attention to interesting relations between events apparently unrelated, and which might otherwise be overlooked. 5. By performing these functions, it actually adds valuable elements to the news report. Thought and opinion on news are in themselves news and are interesting as such, regardless of whether the reader agrees with them or not. 151 152 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER 6. It expresses the views of leaders and specialists, among them the editor himself. 7. It offers an opportunity for self-expression on the part of the citizen, both directly, through seeing his letters and opinions published in the paper, and indirectly, through seeing the opinions of others which meet with his approval. 8. It challenges and stimulates the reader's thought. 9. It furnishes an opportunity for the recognition of leaders and of acts of public service and enterprise. 10. It developes and vocalizes "town consciousness"-the constructive attitude of the community toward itself. 11. It calls attention to needed improvements and helps to bring them to pass. In short, the function of the editorial page in a paper such as we have here outlined is to focus, illuminate and interpret facts of local importance in such a way as to give the reader the utmost assistance in formulating his own opinions, especially on questions requiring action. In view of the importance of this service to the reader, a service which he cannot possibly perform for himself, the editorial page must be developed to its utmost. It is the coordinating center of the paper, the point at which its "personality" rises to conscious expression. The subjects requiring treatment are as various as are the needs and activities of the community and the reader. How, then, can this page, potentially so interesting and useful, be so developed as to fill the largest measure of the townsman's need for it? THE EDITORIAL PAGE 153 Editorial Subject Matter.-In the first place it is gratuitous for the editor to introduce into his editorial page such topics as America's relations with Siam or a flood in a distant state-topics alien to the reader as a local dweller and remote from the rest of the paper's contents. Too many editors permit themselves to do this merely for the sake of self-expression. In editorials, as in news, the editor's strength lies in the intensive cultivation of a comparatively small field. He need not, however, find himself lacking in material. All the educational, social, moral, religious, economic, industrial and commercial affairs of the community, whatever makes for the comfort, convenience and safety of the people, whatever contributes to the welfare and beauty of the town and makes its life more interesting and enjoyable, whatever tends to the maximum of satisfaction for the minimum expenditure-all these are the concern of the editor and from time to time demand editorial treatment. It seems fairly obvious that the local editor will have his hands full if he devotes himself wholly to town matters, leaving to the big papers the editorial treatment of all national and general subjects, except where these directly affect the community. Towncraft and the Editorial Page.--Having thus voluntarily decided to confine himself to the intensive cultivation of a narrow field, the editor should expect to make himself a specialist in town affairs, so that, in addition to marshaling facts for the reader's benefit, he is in a position to give valuable advice as to courses of action to be followed. In fact, the utterances of the paper should carry such weight that even those readers 154 TH COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER who dissent from its conclusions will feel that here is an authority whose advice cannot be ignored. Nowhere is this more important than in connectiont with municipal affairs. Town officials often come to power to carry out some one policy, perhaps a narrow one. An administration may be brief and therefore unable to initiate and put through a comprehensive program of improvement. Or the mayor and his advisers may be elected and retained because they do nothing, thus saving taxes, though at a sacrifice of facilities or improvements worth many times their cost. The independent local paper goes on despite changes in administration. It can take the long view. To it, more than to any other, source, the people have a right to look for vision, courage, initiative and a thorough knowledge of towncraft.' An editorial like the following is a case in point: Let City Hall Tell Its Own Story What!I Shall the Administration advertise itself 9? Such is the interpretation placed by many upon Alderman Smith's measure to provide for official announcement in paid space of all new ordinances, orders and regulations emanating from the various departments of our local government. This paper is likewise criticized for favoring a measure as a result of which it will derive revenue. Boson -community problems and municipal administration are numerous, and there are excellent periodicals devoted to the subject. Among the papers which the editor may profitably read are The Amnerican City, Tribune Building, New York City; Municipal Journal, 245 West 39th Street, New York City. THE EDITORIAL PAGE 155 I But these charges of self-seeking on the part of the Administration and of The News are wholly irrelevant until the merits of the question itself have been properly considered. And so far as The News is concerned, we do not propose to be deterred from discussing the question on its merits because of the insinuation of a selfish motive. It seems very obvious to us that the defects of our municipal life are in large measure due to just such a lack of interest, knowledge and understanding as this advertising on the part of our legislative and executive departments would largely remedy. It is well known that at the time of our recent epidemic, matters were made vastly worse than they might have been by reason of widespread popular ignorance of the health regulations. Any careful observer can see that both fire and police departments would function more effectively, were they given the measure of popular co6peration which the right official publicity would be likely to insure. However, perhaps the most striking evidence of the need of such publicity is offered by the fact that at our last municipal election only one third of the voters registered at the polls opinions which many of them later expressed in vehement protest against carrying out the very policy for which the small vote gave the mandate. Although it is quite clear that the absentee voters had themselves largely to blame, this deplorable situation could doubtless have been avoided had all voters been properly aroused and enlightened before the election took place. 156 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER It is our opinion, therefore, that to turn the light upon municipal enactments by the means provided in this measure would be to insure greater interest and intelligence in these matters on the part of all our people, and to bring about more efficient government, more economical administration and a greater measure of democracy in our community life. The actual writing of editorials has been treated by several recent authors, and to these discussions we refer the reader.2 We shall here confine ourselves to a few suggestions, mainly on the psychological side. Editorials of Persuasion.--If the paper has demonstrated its fitness and readers have come to have faith in the veracity of its news and information and in the intelligence, ability and sincerity of the editor, they are apt to be predisposed in favor of its editorial utterances. They feel that the editor is an expert working in their behalf, and one who can be trusted not only to assemble facts for their consideration, but to arrive at conclusions which are likely to be wise. In other words, readers are suggestible to such an editor. He is in a position to mould their opinions, prompt them to action and thus to effect social and other improvements often far-reaching in their importance. This dynamic function of the editorial is doubtless its most interesting and significant feature. A man in this position who sits down to write an editorial by which he hopes to bring about definite re'Bing, Phil C., The Country Weekly (Appleton), Chapters v, vi. Flint, Leon N., The Editorial (Appleton). THE EDITORIAL PAGE 157 suits has before him a problem in salesmanship. He must first attract the reader's attention to the subject in hand and, at the same time, stimulate his interest; second, he must appeal to his intelligence; third, he must create desire for the results; and fourth, he must, in so far as possible, move the reader's will to the point of action. The editor, like the salesman, sooner or later appeals to perception, intellect, emotion and will. In the following editorial, each of the four steps or appeals is plainly visible, though one is not separated from the next in such a way as to make possible a clean-cut analysis: Coal Conservation Directed by the mayor to arrange for an equitable distribution of the available supply in this town, the committee to which the task has been delegated this week sounds a warning to the people of Montclair which should receive serious consideration. Conservation is the keynote of the advice given by the committee, and the facts in the case support its contention that if every effort is not made to husband the supplies on hand distressing conditions will result for many of our townspeople. After five months of idleness at the anthracite mines, there is a tremendous deficit in the supply of coal. This cannot be met even with the mines working to capacity throughout the entire fall and winter season. It is inevitable, therefore, that many people will be unable to procure a normal supplyof anthracite under the best of conditions at the "8Montclair Times, September 3, 1922. 158 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER production centers, and these are not by any means assured. The alternative is for every one to exercise such economies as will minimize the consumption of anthracite. This can be done by resorting to the use of all substitutes that are available, and these include coke, wood, gas and oil. This will not be a hardship, particularly during the early fall, when only a modicum of heat is required. The full and sympathetic cooperation of the public is necessary if drastic measures are to be avoided. Group Suggestibility and the Editorial.- The editorial writer may also think of his problem as one of convincing an audience-an analogy which brings out more forcibly than that of salesmanship the important factor of group suggestion with which he has to deal. In the presence of an actual crowd-or even when we are alone -we are enormously suggestible to the society of which we are a part. It is the source of our prejudices, of many of our enthusiasms, of much of our selfless devotion. Creative thinking, rare though it is, is the source of conscious progress, and the editor can do much to stimulate this capacity. However, it is suggestion which wins and holds us day by day to the accomplishment of the work in hand, and the editor will accomplish most with the reader when he is able to invest reasonable truths with the carrying force of group suggestions, thus using for a constructive purpose the mechanism by which prejudices are made. Although in the interest of truth and independence there will come times when an editor is called upon to THE EDITORIAL PAGE 159 take a position which is very unpopular, he will not without good reason push a cause against public sentiment at an untimely moment. He will urge his point at the most strategic time and in the most desirable manner. Contents of the Editorial Page.-Besides the regular editorials, in which the editor may be supposed to some extent to speak for his readers collectively as well as for himself, the editorial page may contain correspondence from readers. It is also the logical position for paragraphs expressing the views of readers, opinions from exchanges and similar matter in the nature of analysis, interpretation and opinion. Voluntary Editorial Opinion of Outsiders.-It is doubtful if local papers generally have availed themselves to as large an extent as they might of voluntary editorial work. In nearly every community there are professional people and others who are ready thinkers and have a gift for investigation and writing. Many such people could be enlisted to write for the paper for the benefit of the community. A local paper is a public serving agency which does all sorts of unselfish work for the community and could, therefore, gracefully invite such cooperation. Articles of this sort might oftexn be used either signed or unsigned as editorials and would add to the variety of a paper which is too small to have a staff of editorial writers. Opinions of Readers.--We are apt to forget that what people think is often more interesting even than what they do. If the thoughts of local people on local subjeets can be brought out, the resulting items are doubly 160 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER interesting as personals and as opinions pertinent to the local paper. These opinions may well include those of all classes of people, especially the more modest who are not given to printing their sayings and the lowly who may be surprised when their opinions are asked. Here is a good place to be democratic. The subjects raised for treatment either in the single interview or symposium are too numerous and too dependent on local conditions to be given at length. They might include, however, such topics as Sunday movies, coo"Operation of churches, protection of game and song birds and the extermination of harmful birds, the "zoning plan"' and building restrictions, daylight saving and the "community chest." The difficulty is to get these expressions without too much expenditure of time. This, however, can be managed. Professional people and holders of office will generally answer a questionnaire, some will respond to the telephone, while others must be seen. It should be possible to get people so into the habit of expression that there will be little difficulty in keeping a good department going, especially as this may vary in the matter of length, depending upon the interest felt at the moment in some local subject. These opinions might range from two lines to a stick inlength, and perhaps an upper limit of two sticks should be set. It is our feeling that where such a column can be worked up, it is very rewarding in the general interest it will awaken and in the Warm, feeling for the paper among those quoted and their friends.1 One of the writers carried a column of this kind under TH EDITORIAL PAGE 6 161 the heading "Points and Opinions," setting the names in full-face type, whether they came at the end of the paragraphs or at the beginning. Some of the paragraphs, rarely more than a stick in length, can better be run, "John Smith of Jones Street thinks-," or "isays"~ or "believes"~ or "contends." Mlatter for these paragraphs can be obtained from persons directly or from speeches and other utterances. Correspondence.-Letters from readers, unless placing them elsewhere materially helps the make-up, may properly go on the editorial page, as they are largely in the nature of comment and opinion. There are several reasons for making much of correspondence from townspeople. The right kind of letters adds to the interest of the paper. They make it more fully the voice of the people, and enlist a real and worth-while interest on the part of the writers and of their friends. Perhaps the most common reason for failing more openly to invite such contributions is the liability of embarrassment in dealing with letters which for one reason or another cannot be used. But it is so desirable to get matter from this source, some of the letters are themselves so excellent and the enlistment of the writers and their friends is so advantageous, that this objection should be overridden in favor of a policy of active hospitality. If the editor openly invites and urges such letters but at the same time calls attention to the limitations of space and the need for such editing as will make the matter conform to the requirements of the paper, there 162 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER should be no trouble in handling the matter without serious offense. Of course an attitude of genuine sympathy and kindliness on the part of the editor is necessary. And if more or less matter is used for motives other than its merits, the cost need not be.too great. At all events, the attitude of hospitality is needed to bring out modest writers who produce material of merit, whereas even a want of that attitude is not sufficient to keep out the egotistical writer. In giving special invitation to people competent to handle certain subjects, it is usually expected that a limit of length will be mentioned. It has sometimes seemed to us that it might be a good rule to place a rigid limit to the length of every article whose writer did not obtain special permission to occupy more space. The occasional hampering of the writer who is justified in using more space would be more than offset by the ability sharply to limit writers who need to be limited. It might also be a rule that not more than one article a month from the same writer should be used. In fact, the main thing in the conduct of such a department is to have rules so simple and to have them so uniformly and obviously enforced that no one would have valid reason for taking offense. The editor might well take special pains to notice and comment upon contributions of this kind and in other ways express encouragement and hospitality. The correspondence column is exceedingly interesting when it is good and very bad when it falls into the hands of the crank, the long-winded or the chronic correspondent. Perhaps a good plan is to print at the THE EDITORIAL PAGE 163 head of the column something like this: "We are very glad to publish letters from our readers upon local subjects of interest. In view of the limitations of space, however, we ask that letters be as brief as possible and that in no case shall they exceed - words. The name of the writer must be known to us and preferably given in print, but it will be withheld upon request." It should be made clear that correspondents may treat only local subjects. To stimulate correspondents it is often desirable for an editor to write the substance of what some reader has said to him as a communication. A debate on some local subject is not undesirable when it can be kept pleasant and the letters brief, and when it is not permitted to continue for too long a period. The editor should not hesitate to admit correspondence adverse to the editorial view; indeed, he should welcome a fair critic and comment upon his utterances in good nature and good faith. Not the least of the advantages of this department, when actively managed, would be the encouragement and education of a set of writers who would personally benefit through the experience, as well as being a real asset to the paper. There is no doubt that a local paper should more largely act as a vehicle of expression for its townsmen. Exchanges.-The advantages of making brief extracts from exchanges when these are of a nature to be of local interest is very obvious. Not only do neighboring towns have similar questions to face, but an outside opinion is often very desirable. Moreover, by the skillful use of exchanges, the editor can do much to build 164 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER up a spirit of friendliness among neighbioring towns in place of the unproductive jealousy which often exists. Another source of good quotations is, the press devoted to municipal administration. The editorial page should not be underestimated or given secondary consideration. Within its columns may be carried, under the guidance of the conscientious,editor, that which will go far toward stimulating civic pride and will aid in the continued progress and development of the greater commuity. PART III BUILDING CIRCULATION AND ADVERTISING CHAPTER X THE NECESSITY FOR ADVERTISING In order to have an abiding faith in his business, which consists essentially of selling advertising space at a profit, the publisher needs fully to grasp the advertising idea. He must get a clear conception of the place advertising fills in the business world. Why is advertising? The Problem of Commodity Distribution.- The great problem of commodity distribution is not yet fully solved. It involves getting an ever-increasing number of products, many of them intricate in character, into the hands of millions of people, each with requirements peculiar to himself. Each consumer seeks, for the most part, not necessarily a definite article or service, but just something which will meet a want, often undefined and vague. He can be persuaded to exchange his money for that which promises to yield him the greatest satisfaction. He is practically open-minded as to what he will eat, how he will be clothed, sheltered, amused. Thus to a large extent the wants of the millions are undifferentiated. It is obvious that to get definite products into the hands of the individuals who can use them is a huge problem in the distribution of information about the product as well as distribution of the product itself. IWithout the dissemination of intelligence regarding arf 168 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER article, its physical distribution cannot get far. As the statistician, Edward Atkinson, author of The Distribution of Products, said, "The distribution of products is boys' play compared with the distribution of the ideas about products which must precede this sale." How Advertising Simplifies the Problem.--The use of advertising offers the principal solution of this problem. The producer of a box of oranges has a uniform message for the millions who are to buy his goods. Where information is thus to be distributed on a large scale, the printing press must be used. The message tells about oranges in general and about his oranges in particular, which he calls by a brand name so that the consumer can call for and identify them. This message is so framed and conveyed as to crystallize the consumer's undefined desire into a definite demand. The same thing is done for a breakfast food, a safety razor or any other article, with the result that consumers buy freely, dealers buy readily and the whole process of distribution is speeded up. This reduces the cost of distribution per unit of product. In this process the function of advertising is positive and is absolutely necessary to economy and efficiency of distribution. Large scale production and distribution of a new device like the safety razor or a new food product are both impossible without advertising. What Advertising Does for the Retailers.-In the field of retailing, advertising is no less necessary to efficiency and economy. That modern retailing which best serves the needs of the consumer depends upon (1) organizing a store to handle rapid turnover, and (2) NECESSITY FOR ADVERTISING 16 169 creating large demand through advertising. Except under unusual circumstances, rapid turnover without advertising is out of the question. Here, as with the producer, information must be given, and to distribute this information by word of mouth would be as foolish as to try to give orally the contents of a book or a newspaper. A little reflection will disclose the fact that advertising stands on an entirely solid foundation of economic necessity. Salesmanship, an important and expensive factor i the marketing of products, consists mainly in giving information to prospective purchasers. This information is of two sorts: first, that which admits of being given broadcast to all prospective purchasers, and second, that special information which applies to the case of the individual customer. Clearly the first sort of information-that which is uniform for all possible buyers-can be given more effectively and economically through the printed word than by any other means. Thus advertising has steadily increased until it now employs more than half the output of all the printing presses in the country, involving an annual' expenditure of something like a billion and a half dollars,1 and furnishes the motive power for the sale of tens of billions of dollars worth of goods each year. When the producer or distributor of a commodity prints a circular or catalogue to give to prospective buyers, the printed advertising supplements the work of the salesman by giving information, commendation 11 This very rough estimate is built up from a number of sources. In the year 1919, the expenditure for space in newspapers and periodicals alone was $528,299,378. 170 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER and assurance which would otherwise have to be given orally in order to make a sale. But printed selling intelligence is also given in advertisements in publications and thus it enjoys a wide circulation. In this case, the advertisement performs other functions, namely, those of attracting attention to the article or advertiser, of awakening the reader's interest in the article or concern advertised, and of creating demand. The Selling Machine: An Economy.- Thus advertising performs the office of a selling machine, distributing by power and mechanical means that part of the selling information, commendation and assurance which are not of such a nature that they need to be given to each individual buyer separately. In other words, that part of the sales work which can be so standardized as to become a uniform product can be done by machinery at material saving. In some cases the advertising in the public print does little but attract attention to the object advertised and familiarize the public with its name, leaving the major part of the sales work to be done by the salesman. In other cases the advertisement not only attracts attention to the article advertised, but also awakens interest in it, creates desire for it, and moves the will of the reader to buy it. The Profits of Advertising.--The portion of the selling work that can be done by printing depends upon various conditions, but in most cases the advertisement and the salesman, both wholesale and retail, work together to bring about the sale of the product. In the case of a producer of, say, a soap or a breakfast food, this works out in the following manner. The article NECESSITY FOR ADVERTISING 171 is given a trade name or trade-mark by which it can be identified. Advertisements setting forth its nature and merits are inserted in newspapers and magazines, and this advertising attracts attention to the article, awakens interest in it and causes sufficient desire for it to induce readers to go to their local stores and call for it. The demand thus created makes it relatively easy for the traveling salesman of the manufacturer or the wholesale grocer to sell it to the local grocer and for the local grocer to sell it to consumers. The result is to make a large demand which reduces the cost of production and also reduces the cost of selling and of retail price, while giving a larger total profit to the producer. The citrus fruit growers of California, by spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for advertising, have stimulated an enormous sale of oranges, grapefruit and lemons and kept their total cost of marketing down to three and one half cents per box, or 2.32 per cent on the amount of sales. Thus the great and increasing crop of fruit is marketed at fair prices, dealers are enabled to retail at smaller margins of profit and consumers are assured trustworthy goods at a reasonable figure. This feat, impossible without advertising, is typical of what many producers are doing by the use of printer's ink. Advertising by retail merchants involves the same fundamental principles. Here the retailer puts the stress largely upon the merits of his store as an agency through which to buy. His two chief aims are to attract attention to his store and its offerings, to awaken interest in them and to perform as much of the preliminary selling work as possible. 172 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER The advantages of retail advertising cannot be as readily proved by statistics as can the great profits of national advertising by producers, but they are no less real. The publisher will usually be able to cite the example of dealers within the acquaintance of his merchants who have made marked successes through advertising. It is quite probable that, were the facts accessible, it could be shown that in many lines of retailing the merchants who spend most money for advertising space are the most successful. Department stores not infrequently spend as high as eight per cent of total sales on advertising. /PIf a dealer can be made to see the real place of advertising in carrying on his trade, he will get at the same time a strong belief in its utility and an insight into what and how to write. He will come to take the easy and confident tone toward the public as a whole which, when at his best, he is able to take with the individual customer. His ads, instead of being awkward and self-conscious, will be naturally and convincingly written. He will really see that this printed, preliminary salesmanship is to be honestly and frankly addressed to people who are "just folks" and that this,kind of talk makes sales and makes friends. By the giving out of intelligence through advertising, two things are accomplished: increased demand is created and readers of advertising are informed to such a degree that selling is made easier and more rapid. That is, the dealer who advertises finds that he can handle customers more satisfactorily and in a shorter time. NECESSITY FOR ADVERTISING 173 Advertising Saves Time, Labor and Money.-- Waiting on customers involves much waste of time. An uninformed and undecided customer necessitates the showing of many goods and the giving of much oral information. This is costly, especially as the prospect may not1 buy at all, although in the choice of goods involving personal taste this is, to a great extent, unavoidable. Such is not the case with standardized goods and all articles which admit of being described in print. Here selling can be enormously accelerated by the use of printed salesmanship. In such lines as standardized groceries and staple hardware, the item of salaries to salesmen, -which is often in the neighborhood of ten per cent, can be reduced to, say, four per cent through advertising. Nor is labor the only item which can be reduced. Whatever retards the flow of goods through a store increases the whole overhead expense. It would not be unreasonable to expect to reduce a store expense of twenty per cent to ten per cent through the expenditure of five per cent on advertising. The first business of the publisher is to disabuse the, dealer's mind of the idea that outlay for advertising adds to the percentage of expense in selling goods. The thing which makes large percentage of sales expense is slow sales, and slow sales are caused by too few customers and too large a proportion of them uninformed and undecided about goods. The functions of advertising are to increase the number of people who come to buy and so to inform and interest those who do come as to make it an easier and quicker task to wait upon them and sell them goods. The customer brought 174 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER by advertising is more nearly "sold" than the customer who merely drifts in. The advertising which tells about the goods and prices not only brings in the customer, but also does a large part of the work which must otherwise be done by the salesman, and the advertisement does it better and at less cost. The self-service grocery store has in recent years (demonstrated in a very striking way how it is possible for saleswork to be done by advertising. These stores are run entirely without salesmen or saleswomen by permitting the customer to wait upon himself. Some of these stores have conducted business for as little as five per cent for the entire expense of retailing, while others have been run for seven per cent. This is around half the lowest expense of a store with clerks, and is made possible largely by two things: first, the use of goods which through national advertising have become so standardized that customers trust them without any oral assurance on the part of salesmen; and second, by good local advertising. Thus self-service selling in a way carries the advertising system of salesmanship to its logical conclusion. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that the paerchant who has the lowest percentage of sales expense is the one who spends most for advertising, provided the expenditure is made with good judgment. The heaviest tax upon the consumer is levied by the merchant whose sales are small by reason of lack of proper advertising. In other words, no way has yet been found for distributing goods without salesmanship, in one form or another. Information about the article, assurance as to its NECESSITY FOR ADVERTISING 175 quality, and a certain amount of persuasion must be gotten across from dealer to customer. That merchant is most successful who does most of this saleswork by means of the machinery of advertising. It is well for the publisher to get a firm grasp of the functions of advertising, and especially of retail advertising. He should be able to demonstrate to a local merchant by means of such facts as we have cited that it is impossible to conduct a retail business in the most efficient and economical manner without adopting modern advertising methods of merchandising. It is necessary for a store to be organized to handle goods and customers skillfully, and the prices must, of course, be as low as good buying, proper, organization, and a farsighted policy will permit. When these conditions obtain it is possible, through well written advertising, to sell a large enough volume of goods to yield a good total profit. Advertising Buys Good Will.-But the farsighted merchant advertises not only to make sales but to please customers and bring them back to the store again and again. Thus the dealer by advertising is not only incurring an expense which is repaid by sales, b-t he is also making a substantial investment, reaping double reward for his enterprise. To implant in the minds of the people of the community the tendency to go to his store to buy, is to have a perpetual force operating in his store's favor and to make more effective all his subsequent initiative in advertising. This accumulating value of advertising, the reputation which a merchant can build in connection with his' 176 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER regular sales advertising, must be kept in mind and dealers must be taught to bank on it. The merchant. who builds for the future will think of everything he does to create a good name for his store as helping to establish a perpetual earning power of good will. The American Tobacco Company can create a good will worth $45,099,430; the Liggett Meyers Tobacco Company, $40,709,711; F. W. Woolworth Company, $50,000,000. The words Kodak, Uneeda, and Ivory are each worth a million dollars a letter. Just so in a smaller way the good will of a merchant should and can be made an asset, increasing in value each year. Noncommercial Advertising.-Another thing which is significant for the local paper is the probable growth to important proportions of noncommercial advertising. It is only during the past decade and more especially during and since the World War that people have come to use display advertising space in newspapers and periodicals to bring about ends not connected with selling goods. There seem to be sound reasons for expecting extensive employment of advertising for these Spurposes. Newspaper advertising is increasingly used.to get people to go to church, to urge the fuller use of free libraries and art museums, to call people to political meetings, to solicit contributions of money for all sorts of charities and other purposes. It is used to get the public to support desired legislation, to support a party or reform, to vote for a candidate. Candidates and parties advertise their platforms, public officials make statements to their constituents, boards of trade, local improvement associations, municipal governing bodies, NECESSITY FOR ADVERTISING 177 boards of health, high schools, report and appeal to the people through paid space. Public service corporations ask for the good will of their patrons, colleges for funds. There are reasons why such uses of advertising are likely to increase. There is nothing in the nature of advertising which limits it to the field of commerce. What advertising does is to approach the mind of the reader full of undifferentiated desire, seize upon some latent want and develop therefrom a definite desire and demand. That desire may be to get a book from the library, to see a picture in the art gallery, to participate in a church service, as well as to buy a tube of tooth paste. Through advertising you may be induced to give to the hospital instead of going to the theatre. In a busy world where our actions are considerably controlled by external appeal, the things which come at us and establish the best claims win our acceptance. Thus a church believes that many in the community would come to the Sunday service if its claims were presented so as to appeal to them, and experiment proves this to be true. Almost any worth-while public serving agency, library, art museum or what not can, by calling upon the public in the right way, so increase support as to reduce very materially the cost per person served. Conclusion.-In conclusion, such direct announcement as may be given in paid space will, besides serving the consumer, add to the reputation and success of almost any public serving agency. Advertising stimulates present demand. It is a wise permanent investment. As a consciousness of the power of advertising continues to penetrate the noncommercial as well as the 178 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER commercial world, more and more space is bound to be sold. To the local paper a large part of this business will come. Its capacity for close touch with its readers is well known, and already its strong position as a medium is being recognized. When we consider how this position can be further fortified through intensive development, we see that there is, indeed, great promise in the local paper. In order that these possibilities shall be realized, it is only necessary that the publisher follow the best modern policies to their logical conclusion. CATER XI CREATINQ AN ADVERTISING MEDIUM The real producer is the advertising medium. A paper may have its news gathered and written with the ability of a Melville J. Stone and its editorial page presided over by a Greeley, a Dana or a Bowles, and if the paper has not been developed into a good advertising medium, the publisher will remain poor. It is from advertising that the publisher's profits must come. In the year 1919, the receipts from circulation by the newspapers and magazines of the country were $278,006,382,'1 whereas the advertising receipts were $528,299,379.2 The local paper receives three times as much from sale of space as from sale of papers. An Advertising Medium Must Be Consciously Planned.To-day no real success can be expected except by the, publisher who consciously plans and develops his paper as an advertising medium. Considered from the point of view of earning power, a paper's text contents are only a means to this end. Fortunately, however, there is here no conflict between aims, for it is only throughi giving the best news and editorial service that the best medium can be produced. Perhaps the local paper, on the average, falls farther short of being the medium which it might be than any "1Department of Commerce, U. S. Census Bureau. 2IbMd. 179 180 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER other type of publication. The sale of space in the paper for advertising purposes, even though it is the publisher's chief source of revenue, has been treated, in a sense, as incidental, and many an editor regards advertising itself as a necessary evil. He tolerates it only to keep the pot boiling. The reader has had no kindly interest in the advertiser, but has rather regarded him as an ill-mannered intruder, introducing into the paper matter alien to its object. Many of the early advertisers and some modern ones have merited this unfavorable opinion. Their crude aggressiveness has earned for advertising, as a whole, an unfavorable reputation from which it still suffers in spite of the immense im OUR NEW STOCK embraces the finest fabrics ever seen in this city, all in the perfect models for which the Empire Clothing Store is noted. LOWER PRICES than can be found elsewhere. Earl & Wilson Collars, regular price 20 cents, special 13 cents. Fine all wool socks 39 cents,3 regular 75 cents. The very best goods at Lowest Prices. EMPIRE CLOTHING STORE 93 Main Street. SThese goods are used as "leaders," to give an impression of low price. The stock is short so that they are all gone by ten o'clock in the morning of the first day. CREATING A MEDIUM 181 provement in the average tone and truthfulness of modern copy. Readers of local papers are still wary of the advertising columns on account of this survival of suspicion and general objection, and when they do read them it is with a large discount of distrust which adds enormously to the work and expense of the honest modern merchandiser who seeks to convince the public. A great deal will be required to rid the consumer of his feeling of suspicion toward this dealer-and dealers in general-so long as sweeping advertisements like that on page 180 are used. Present Defects.-When to the reader's sentiment against advertising we add its common shortcomings in the way of circulation, it is evident that as an advertising medium the average local paper leaves much to be desired. Indeed, as an organ of communication it reminds one of the early telephone. The message which one tries to send through it becomes so deflected by reason of imperfections in the instrument and by disturbing currents that the percentage of efficiency is low. In the case of the paper this inefficiency is the natural result of treating advertising as an incidental by-product. The really adequate medium must be consciously planned and carefully built. It differs from the weak medium in two particulars: it covers a definite territory thoroughly; and it exerts over readers all the influence made possible by observance of the principles deduced from advertising experience. Reader Influence.-The question of first importance about an advertising medium is how favorable an influ 182 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER ence it exerts over readers in behalf of advertising. There are two types of paper. One is the unreliable, sensational kind, whose text matter is of a character so alien to the accompanying advertising as actually to divert the interest of the reader from the practical suggestions of the advertiser. Moreover, the paper's known unreliability places the reader in a suspicious and defensive attitude in which he is not disposed either to read advertising or to place confidence in the advertiser. The other type of paper exerts the opposite influence over its readers. The character of its contents is such that the advertising supplements the text matter. The advertiser becomes a welcome contributor to the information which the reader seeks in the paper. The editorial contents and the business principles of the publisher are such that readers have confidence in the paper as a whole. This attitude of interest and confidence is carried over into the advertising columns. What is the comparative value of advertising space in these two papers? Whatever the difference in rates, it is clear that space in the latter is worth considerably more per unit of circulation than space in the former. It is through a development of such media as the latter type affords that our advertising era has been and is to be greatly aided in its progress toward economical distribution of commodities. The Publisher's Job.-It is possible for the publisher of the community newspaper to create a medium of this latter type: a paper between whose advertisers and readers there exists such a spirit of mutuality and trust CREATING A MEDIUM 183 as will take up nearly all the costly slack and inefficiency of merchandising due to insincerity of advertisers and reader distrust. Such a perfect medium can be created; first, by making a first-class paper conducted in good faith, with integrity and with unfailing loyalty to the reader's interest; second, by giving enough useful, practical matter, about how to live and what and how to buy, in the text columns of the paper to cause the reader habitually to consult them and their complementing advertising for information and suggestion; third, by insuring that the advertising copy shall be made as interesting and instructive as possible; and fourth, by enlisting all the readers necessary to make the circulation saturate completely a definite field. Every thoughtful advertiser and publisher knows that in order to bring the best results, a medium must enjoy the confidence of readers, and, that other things being equal, the returns from advertising are in proportion to the confidence of readers in a paper. If a paper is regarded with distrust, all the advertising which it contains will suffer. The influence of millions of dollars' worth of advertising per year is canceled by reader distrust, traceable to untrustworthy editing and exaggerations and to deception and untruth in advertising copy. That advertising has survived and grown in spite of such a handicap is a wonderful demonstration: of its inherent worth as an instrument of distribution. Force of Truth..-Truth has waited long for us to learn that "the eternal years of God are hers." There is wonderful zest to the editor in the opportunity to tell 184 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER the truth under trying circumstances. And there is plenty of the heroic stuff in the press to come forward and do just that thing. But the making of a trusted paper has its enormous advantages in the everyday treatment of current matters. The truthful editor or advertiser does not "hope to be heard for his much speaking." He states a fact or opinion briefly and simply-and is believed, while the habitual prevaricator is struggling with numerous protestations and circumlocutions in the hope that his claims will not be discounted quite a hundred per cent. And yet, as obvious as is this fundamental quality, the average publisher still treats his advertising section as a common carrier over which he exercises no control except such censorship as the law compels. Thus he tacitly consents to the little deceptions, tricks and insincerity which are considered smart by the narrow-gauge merchant, but are based upon the ancient warning, "Let the buyer beware." This negative virtue and easy tolerance which leave the advertising columns still tainted do not result in a one hundred per cent medium. Even thorough censorship is not enough. The advertising columns, like the text columns, must be constructively edited in the reader's interest. Only thus can the kind of medium be developed which will give maximum results to space buyers and largest profits to the publisher. The only way to win this confidence is to deserve it. Not only must the editorial and business conduct of the paper be marked by good will and thoroughgoing integrity, but these virtues must be made so obvious that no CREATING A MEDIUM 185 one can fail to notice their active presence in everything the paper does. As advertisers must live down the bad reputation of the space users of the past, so must the publisher overcome the prejudice caused by his easygoing predecessors. And the local publisher is in a very advantageous position to build this confidence, not only through the editorial and business integrity of his paper, but also through personal acquaintance. Advertising Supplements Text.-The next step in the construction of a scientifically sound advertising medium is to make a paper in which the advertising is seen, not only when it happens to trick the reader or incidentally to fall under his eye, but in which the advertising is read and welcomed for its own sake. This can be done by the inclusion of such text as will cause readers habitually to think of and use the paper as a source of information on such questions as are involved in turning dollars, time and effort into the satisfactions of life. If in the reading columns, interesting and timely information is given on the hundreds of practical questions of shelter, food, clothing, recreation and the like as they are affected by local conditions, readers in seeking this matter will also welcome the suggestions of advertising which, in effect, supplements the text. This kind of text, discussed more fully in Chapter viii, will tend to insurance that readers not only read advertisements, but that they do so while their minds are occupied with similar subjects, thus making the advertising more effective. Advertising is actually of more value to the consumer than to the producer or distributor, and is essentially attractive when it does 186 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER not impolitely interrupt him when his mind is intent upon other matters. How It Works.-We wish especially to emphasize this valuable feature of what we have called "a scientific advertising medium." The text discusses methods and materials for doing practical things connected with daily living. By commending certain ways of accomplishing desired results, the text of the paper practically sends the reader to the advertising columns to procure the materials. Or, as one writer on the business press says, "the editor tells what to do and how to do it, the advertiser suggests what to do it with." The text and advertising work together like two halves of a pair of shears. The text attracts the reader's attention, awakens his interest and perhaps creates a desire for something in the advertiser's line. Thus the text does what the advertiser wants' done to the reader, does it better than the advertiser could and at no expense to the advertiser. This positive approach to the reader is serviceable alike to reader and advertiser and, as a matter of course, is profitable to the publisher, since the results per unit of publishing expense are materially increased. Such a medium, where readers are virtually sent to the advertising columns and are turned over in the right frame of mind, might be called an active medium as distinguished from the passive medium in which advertising results are dependent upon the haphazard method of catching the eye of the reader when perhaps he is off his guard. It is to the business and technical press that we must look for the most highly developed type of advertising medium, a CREATING A MEDIUM 187 type fully embodying and reaping the benefit of these principles. For the local paper to develop along similar lines, as it is in a position readily to do, will mean much to advertiser, consumer and publisher. The Force of the Technical Medium.- To illustrate the principles which underlie the very effective advertising medium afforded by the industrial paper of the best type-which principles can be largely applied to the community newspaper-permit us to refer to a publication started by one of the writers of this book. Power, founded at a cost of less than $20,000, sells its advertising space for several times as much per line per thousand circulation as the popular paper is able to do. Moreover, it has developed to be worth, as a publishing property, upwards of half a million dollars. What are the fundamental ideas at the bottom of this type of advertising medium? Power is devoted wholly to the discussion of economy and efficiency in the generation and transmission of power for stationary purposes; it treats of steam engines, water power, electric machinery and whatever relates to making and conveying power. The aim of the publisher is to get the people responsible for power plants in industrial establishments to read this paper, and this he is able to do by the tens of thousands. The result is the gathering of a great audience, all of whom are interested in learning how to produce power to the best advantage and at the lowest cost. The editor tells about new ideas for improving power generation and transmission, and the engineers and superintendents who read the paper find the information, sug 188 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER gestions and advice very valuable in the pursuit of their business. But the news and editorial columns do not tell the whole story. The reader not only wants to learn about the new ideas in his business, but he also wants to know about the machine or appliance by which the idea is practically applied and where it can be obtained. This part of the story is told by the advertiser in paid space. An article may discuss, say, the turbine engine, or the economy of heating feed water before it is put into the boiler. Perhaps on the next page are advertised turbine engines and various types of feed-water heaters. The readers of this paper, because of their interest in power devices, subscribe for the paper and read it carefully. They read it for the very purpose of getting information along the line of the articles advertised, and pick up the paper at a time when they are disposed to inquire in this direction. The editorial matter practically demands the advertising matter to make it complete. The editor, in effect, sends the reader to the advertiser. Here is a positive advertising medium instead of the usual passive one. It is double-acting, for while the advertiser is drawing the reader to his advertisement the editor is pushing him in the same direction. But how, under these circumstances, can the editor make a paper which shall not become subservient to advertisers and thus betray the reader? The editor points out the advantages of better methods and discusses how to apply them. He describes new tools and appliances fairly and honestly. He always has the reader's interest uppermost in his mind, CREATING A MEDIUM 189 but does not hesitate to show a proprietary device where such showing is useful news to his readers. To be sure, the description of a new machine is good advertising for the maker of the machine, and the paper gets no pay for such advertising. But the editor, aiming to make his paper as helpful as possible to his readers, cannot afford to withhold valuable information for the reason that by giving that information he gives free advertising to the maker of the machine. The editor of an independent, dignified paper will be careful to see that the advertising value of his description is purely incidental. His commendation of the machine-or lack of it-will not be influenced by the fact that the maker of the machine is an advertiser in his paper or may become one. But if the paper describes a certain machine in the editorial columns and thus gives it the best kind of free advertising, will not the maker of the machine who thus gets publicity for nothing be indisposed to buy space in "which to advertise? The briefest answer to this objection is that the makers of machinery which has been so illustrated are the principal buyers of the space in the great industrial papers, the advertising revenue of which amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year each. In the first place, the judicial editorial attitude of the high-grade trade or engineering paper is not what is called for in effective advertising. In the second place, the one mention of a device is a relatively slight contribution to the constant reiteration, perhaps through years, which is necessary in an effective program of printed salesmanship. 190 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER The future of the publishing business lies in making printed matter do more work, in getting greater results per unit of mechanical expense. By greater economy, a small percentage can be cut from the expenses of getting out the paper; by better salesmanship, a small percentage can be added to the price received for advertising; but by making a medium of maximum service to the consumer, the earnings can be multiplied. The secret is simply to publish, merchandise and advertise in the interest of the reader. Not one publisher or merchandiser in a hundred has any conception of how valuable advertising can be when it is taken seriously and when purveyors and consumers keep step in the march of honest service. But can the local paper, some one asks, get the higher advertising rates which so thoroughgoing a community medium would justify? Let one who doubts the possibility of this look over lists of papers and see how some journals, which take themselves seriously, already get as much per line as the sensational competitor with two or three times the circulation. The fact is that white paper and ink and copies printed are only the skeleton of an advertising medium. The heart of the medium is honest helpfulness. Helpful to Reader.-One thing more is needed to insure that advertising shall be read. It must be worth reading.4 No advertiser can take the matter as seriously as is justified by the merchandising experience of the past decade without seeing that its whole enormous force depends upon putting himself in the consumer's ' See Chapter viii. CREATING A MEDIUM 191 place. The distributor who does not yet realize that his largest success depends upon serving the buyer's interests is out of date and should be converted by the publisher or way made for his successor. Elsewhere we have suggested that the subscription solicitor, in his talk with prospects, commend the advertising part of the paper as a valuable feature. He is in a position to do much to promote the right attitude toward advertising. There is good reason for commending the paper's advertising in display space in its own columns, as we have elsewhere suggested, provided the contents of the advertising has been brought up to a point where the reader's attention will be repaid. Such advertising offers the publisher an opportunity to disclose his aims and efforts to improve advertising in the reader's behalf. The Physical Make-Up of the Advertising Columns.The effectiveness of a paper as an advertising medium can be materially increased by the right kind of headings, type, printing and arrangement of reading matter. The reader's time and patience can and should be saved by a free use of really informative headlines, by means of which he can recognize articles in which he is not interested so as to skip them, and get sufficiently the substance of others so that he need not read them in full. Also they should indicate articles in which he would be interested, but which might otherwise escape his notice. Ample headings make for clearness and deliver the reader to tle advertising columns more promptly and in a better frame of mind. As the kind of type for advertising in the local paper 192 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER is largely in control of the publisher, there would be distinct gain if a style of type and of general appearance were adopted for church and perhaps other noncommercial advertising different from that used in mercantile advertising. Conditions are not such as always to make handsome printing possible in the local paper, but probably careful figuring would reveal in many cases that better paper, ink and presswork would be a paying investment. The editions are not so large but that the small additional outlay is frequently justified by the much better appearance of the paper. Matter arranged in departments side by side with advertising of related subjects affords a gain too obvious to require urging. Determining the Paper's Territory.--After providing that a paper exercise over each reader the maximum influence in behalf of advertisers, the next thing to determine is who shall have the paper. As to geographical territory to be covered, the interests of advertisers are the first to be considered. If the advertising is largely that of local business men whose trading area is limited, it is very fortunate when it seems feasible for the paper to cover the same area. Since the earnings of the average local paper from advertising are about three times the receipts from subscriptions or copy sales, it is unprofitable for the publisher to spend money to get and to maintain circulation beyond the limits of the territory from which advertisers can derive benefit. Take a town of five thousand with a territory of five miles in each direction, from which the inhabitants, say another five thousand, normally come to the town to do CREATING A MEDIUM 193 their buying. Clearly the local merchants must reach with their announcements the town's people and those of this second zone. But from beyond this five-mile zone they cannot at present expect to attract trade. Suppose a weekly paper published in the town at two dollars per year carried in all, local advertising to the amount of six dollars per each subscriber living within the two trading zones. Each such subscriber would earn for the paper two dollars plus six dollars, or eight dollars, as against' only two dollars of subscribers outside the trading zones. On this basis, the incentive for pushing circulation would be four times as great within the trading area as outside it. On the other hand, more effort should be made to enlist and hold subscribers in the second, or rural zone than in the town, since merchants are more dependent upon advertising to reach the rural trade. Modifications.-These clear-cut conditions will hardly obtain in actual practice, since a normal paper will carry some national advertising which is equally productive outside the trading zone of the town, or nearly so. The circulation policy to be pursued beyond the second zone will depend upon a number of things. If the paper sells, say a quarter of its advertising space, to national advertisers, subscribers outside the town's normal trading zone may be worth half that of a family in the first or second zone. It may be well to get what subscribers come easily. This outside addition should be shown to local advertisers or allowed for as being of little value to them, since from their standpoint if 194 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER merely dilutes the total circulation. The circulation which really counts is that in the first and second zones. Here the publisher should insist upon having every family or knowing why he does not. He should freely state the reasons to his local advertisers. Good evidence of the completeness of a circulation will be a plain, detailed statement which will satisfy space buyers. How large a percentage of the families in such a territory should be on the subscription list of the paper? Of the intelligent, English-reading families, nearly one hundred per cent should be regular readers, provided the paper is independent in politics and has no competitor. In case of competing party papers, each paper should aim at securing as nearly one hundred per cent as may be of its normal prospects. Value of a Reader.-How much expense is justified to get and maintain the proper subscription list? Perhaps half the subscribers the paper should have will come readily. The next twenty-five per cent of the possible subscribers may incur an expense of anywhere from fifty to seventy-five per cent of the price of their subscriptions. The final twenty-five per cent may come much harder, but so important to the advertiser is every family within the trading area that such subscribers should be procured even at an expense of two or three hundred per cent. In short, the circulation must be made thorough, even though the marginal prospects are very hard to reach. It will undoubtedly be more difficult to get the last part of the possible prospects in the rural area than in the town, for the reason that many things in the paper CREATING A MEDIUM19 195 which are of interest to town dwellers do not affect the country people. To secure the greatest possible list among country people may require the incorporation into the paper of agricultural or other useful matter as well as local news. However, at any reasonable cost, the outlying subscribers should be secured in order that the paper shall become a thorough community medium. Methods of promoting circulation will be discussed more fully in the next chapter. But let us insist here that no method is good unless, by means of it, subscribers are really enlisted, and not merely induced to give a reluctant and indifferent consent. The sale of the paper should include commendation of its advertising as a most valuable feature. Incident to the enlistment of the subscribers, it is well to run advertising in the columns of the paper constantly to sell its service and spirit of helpfulness to readers. From the big national advertisers we learn that it is necessary not only to sell a product but to keep it sold by constant advertising. The fact that a person takes a paper does not prove that he fully appreciates its contents or service. Much of its painstaking and valuable work, often unobserved by the reader, may profitably be pointed out. Moreover, it is essential to teach the reader that one paper may be wholly different from another, while superficially they look the same. Pieces of matter like the following may be used to advantage in educating the public to appreciate and make use of the paper's advertising and information service: 196 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER THE NEW ADVERTISING We used to think of the advertiser as a boisterous liar. He often was. Now he is thinking that it pays to give people real, true information about what and where to buy. He is becoming truthful, helpful, courteous. When one buys to-day without consulting the advertising pages, he loses time, money and possible satisfaction. This is becoming more and more evident, especially to readers of this paper. If you are ever deceived by a merchant or other advertiser in this paper, let us know and we will investigate. AN INFORMATION BUREAU We aim to make this paper an exchange of useful information between our readers. Every day every resident of this town wants to know how to do or how to get something. If you ask us what you want to know and tell us what you know, this paper will become an information bureau of great value. May we have your questions and suggestions, CREATING A MEDIUM 197 HELP US TO HELP YOU The most progressive merchants are coming to see that the better they do for their customers, the better in the long run they do for themselves. If you will read and act upon the advertising which is prompted by this spirit, it will not only be to your immediate advantage, but will help to make Eastham a better and better place in which to trade, a thing which is to the permanent advantage of all of us. DON'T MISS GOOD THINGS It is the aim of the makers of this paper to put into every issue many things which will be useful to readers. Don't fail to look the columns over thoroughly enough to find the things that are meant for you. Get the habit. Some of these things are sought out by the editors, others are in the advertising columns, either classified or display. Do you notice that advertising is much more useful to you than it used to be?7 It is now well worth looking over. Part of this improvement is a trend of the times. A larger part is due to our efforts to get advertisers to give the kind of information of most value to readers. The more you use this matter the better it will become. 198 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER A Real Medium.--To sum up, then, the real medium is the one whose readers have confidence in its good will and integrity, whose contents are such as to be supplemented by the advertising, whose advertising is of the utmost interest and utility to readers, and whose circulation may be said to saturate the population of its definite field. When we advocate making a medium of this character, of course we assume that such sales ability will be devoted to the marketing of its space as will bring in something like the revenue justified by the merit of the medium. After selling the advertising at what would seem a high price for a go-as-you-please paper, there will remain such a large margin of advantage to space buyers who merchandise intelligently that the percentage of cost of soliciting should be moderate. For the publisher must remember that advertising is no longer on a gambling or speculative basis. There is a large body of recorded experience to prove that the relation of advertising to selling goods is as direct and positive as is the relation of the steam engine to productive works. The publisher needs to realize that while much advertising power is dissipated through ignorance and inefficiency, just as an immense amount of steam power goes to waste through industrial mismanagement, the fact remains that advertising is not only a useful force in to-day's distribution, but is absolutely necessary to the best results. Such a medium is an important asset to any town. It means better service and lower price to consumers, more prosperity to merchants, more satisfaction to non CREATING A MEDIUM 199 commercial advertisers and more gratifying profits to the publisher who, by creating and owning such a paper, becomes the possessor of a real institution and a valuable propertyr. CHAPTER XII ENLISTING READERS In the past it has been common for the publisher to treat the sale of papers as an end in itself and to promote circulation only in so far as the net receipts from sales seemed satisfactory. To-day he is beginning to see that circulation receipts are only an incident and that circulation building is chiefly a means to developing an advertising medium. Three quarters of his earnings come from the sale of advertising space, and, since the value of this space depends upon the number of people who read the advertisements and buy the goods advertised, his main purpose as a business man is to get the largest possible number of people to read and respond to advertising. "We have already pointed out what is likely to cause readers to read advertising and to act upon it. In this chapter we are to discuss what is involved in the enlistment of readers. Advertising Earnings Per Reader.-When the advertising space in an average local weekly is well sold, the advertisers in the paper collectively pay the publisher all the way from three dollars to eight dollars per year for the privilege of addressing each subscriber. If such a paper had a thousand more circulation, the same space should bring an additional revenue of from three thousand to eight thousand dollars. That is, each sub200 ENLISTING READERS 201 scriber adds three to eight dollars per year to the potential earnings of the paper, even though the subscription price may be only one or two dollars a year. The folly of permitting a circulation to remain smaller than it might be is apparent from these rough figures and from the well-known fact that to furnish the paper to additional readers incurs no initial editorial or composition expense, but only the relatively small additional cost for paper, presswork and clerical labor. With a daily, the same principles hold. Circulation should not stop part way, leaving an incomplete instrument, but the campaign for circulation should be consistently pushed with a thoroughness based upon the real earning power of each reader. Complete Enlistment of Reader Essential.--A subscriber must care enough for a paper to pay for it or there is no assurance that he will bother to read it at all. It is not enough barely to get his consent to receive it. He must be enlisted, and if he shows indifference or resistance, his case calls for educational and sales work sufficient to effect his conversion. Readers bribed by premiums to take a paper are of comparatively little value to advertisers. As in the case of free papers, there is here no evidence of interest on the part of readers. A free paper can have distribution, but it can not have what it properly called circulation or "reader penetration," for true circulation implies that the text contents of the paper exercise an influence over the reader which is of decided value to the advertiser. Prospects should have the merits of a paper carefully pointed out to them. They should be told 202 TE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER about the value of advertising from their standpoint, and should be shown how to use the paper to their best advantage. Considerable education of prospects through advertising and salesmanship is necessary i n order to secure thoroughly enlisted and, therefore, responsive readers. Of course, the first thing the publisher must do in order to enlist readers is to make the kind of paper that will sell and stay sold. Toward this end, besides thoroughly covering local interests through text and advertising, it is important that the right spirit be behind the enterprise. The paper which enters the home with a smile and a spirit of hope and of sympathetic helpfulness is quite likely to remain there. A cynic in the editorial chair is an expensive luxury. The world has enough of sarcasm and bitterness. As we have seen, the recorder and interpreter of the town's life has a wonderful opportunity to spread constructive optimism, and to do this also pays the publisher in dollars and cents. Selling Story.-Much thought must be given to the writing of a "selling story": a complete statement of what the paper is and does, of what it aims to be and do, and of the reasons why people should take it. This statemnent, which is in effect the paper's platform, should be so full and adequate that it will furnish the basis for all the ads, circulars and sales talk of the circulation department. An extract from the selling story might read something as follows: ENLISTING READERS 203 We of the Eastham News believe that the local newspaper of a town ranks in importance with the school, the church and the local government. We believe that the local paper can perform a more important service for the people than it has heretofore performed. The News owns its first duty to the people of Eastham, its readers. Its second duty is to the country as a whole, that it may to the highest degree serve the people. Its third obligation is to those who buy advertising space in its columns, and Fourth, the paper must pay a fair income to its owner. We believe that the local paper should serve all sides of the lives of its readers so far as those lives are dependent upon or related to local conditions and environment. The News should find ways to help the home-building and home-making, the feeding and clothing, the education and the religion, the social life and the recreation of its readers. 1. The publisher feels especially responsible for aiding the people through the News in the selection and purchase of what goes into the making of a home. Since it is finally the reader who pays all the revenues of the local paper, including the amounts received from advertisers, the publisher will not forget his direct obligation to aid the reader to make his dollar purchase the utmost of real satisfaction. 2. The News will undertake to do two things: first, so to inform itself on all local questions as to give or point its readers to advice of real value and to do all it can to see that the real concensus of 204 TH COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER opinion of Eastham. people finds expression and is made to prevail. While holding and expressing its own opinions, the News aims to exercise great care in recognizing and giving space to the opinions -of others. 3. Inasmuch as the reader pays for all advertising ultimately in the price of what he buys, we consider it to be our duty to permit no advertising through which the reader's interests are endangered. Furthermore, we insist that, as far as possible, advertising shall be made to help the reader. And since in the long run only advertising which serves the reader can profit the advertiser, our obligation to help advertisers-which obligation we fully recognize-must always be to help them to help the consumer. We are firm believers in the large helpfulness of advertising to consumer and dealer alike. 4. In placing the income of the publisher fourth we do not do so out of modesty or self-forgetfulness. We merely wish to earn money before we get it. Eastham, does not owe the publisher of this paper a living. It does not owe him a dollar until he has earned it and the publisher will not knowingly receive pay without giving its equivalent in service. It may be well to keep this prospectus in mimeograph form for a time, as talks with readers and the opinions which solicitors and circulation manager are able to get from them, are likely to furnish material which should be added to it. In this selling story, it is well to take readers into the paper's confidence as to the function and purpose of all sorts of advertising, including the ENLISTING READERS 205 noncommercial and classified. Talks with subscription prospects and readers are likely to bring suggestions as to the improvement of the contents of the paper, especially in matters where minor adjustment will better enable it to meet the needs of certain groups of readers. Map of Territory.-Reference was made in the preceding chapter to the need of marking out the paper's definite field, based largely on the needs of local advertisers. It will not do to let a hit-or-miss circulation thin out so that, in the more remote parts of the normal trading area, subscribers are only scattering. Outside the trading zones of the local merchants, circulation can be left to take care of itself, but within those zones the saturation should be high. There should be a map of this territory with convenient indications of subscribers and nonsubscribers. A prospect list is also required by the progressive circulation department. This list should note, so far as possible, the people who are indifferent or resistant to the paper, and the reasons why. This will make it possible to classify the unresponsive and apply the needed treatment to each group. Circulation a Straight Selling Problem.-Whatever methods and helps are employed to win readers, the fundamental principles of selling are here applicable. First, the prospect's attention must be attracted; second, he must be interested; third, his confidence must be won; and finally, he must be moved to buy. It is desirable to keep this formula in mind, since it suggests that different parts of the selling work may be done 206 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER by different means. Also the observance of this program will help the solicitor to give his selling-talk in an orderly way. Few publishers advertise their own business sufficiently. Preceding and during a subscription campaign, a constant fire of advertising may profitably be kept up. Display advertisements in the columns of the paper, post cards calling attention to interesting contents, circulars, letters, and perhaps billboards may be used. Even when this advertising does not directly bring any sales of the paper, it is bound to call attention to it in a favorable way and to awaken interest in and desire for it. What the publisher wants is not only to sell his paper, but to insure that, when a prospect does become a regular reader, he will have a comprehensive idea of the paper. It is too easy to take for granted that every one knows all there is to know about the local paper. Fully to enlist a reader usually involves the necessity of making a favorable impression upon him up to the time he actually subscribes and beyond that time. The experience of national advertisers who realize that they must be "everlastingly at it," should be a lesson to the local publisher. Methods of Circulation Promotion.---It is not the purpose here to describe all the numerous plans of promoting circulation, but to refer briefly to a few and to point out what seem to us the fundamental principles of the work. Undoubtedly a new paper in a responsive field will be able to secure quite a number of subscribers in a short time by circulars, letters and sample copies; but ENLISTING READERS20 207 after the more responsive prospects have been secured, it will be necessary to organize for personal solicitation. Pains should be taken at the outset to see that a comprehensive idea of the paper is given. If, in starting, a reduced price is offered for short-term subscriptions, too much pains cannot be taken to make it clear why this special cut in price is made, so that an idea of an unstable price may not be left in the mind of the prospect. Also in sending sample copies, a full explanation should be given so that the paper may not be cheapened by being sent free. An imitation typewritten letter, a circular calling attention to some interesting contents, giving a good general description of the paper and stating why people should read it, may be used in this connection. Cards with such list of contents as will awaken curiosity and whet the appetite are often useful. These things, examples of which follow, are all good forerunners of the solicitor: [Imitation typewritten, addressed on machine and ffilled in.] EASTHAM, 19 -DEAR, MR. JONES: Of course, we here in the office may overestimate the value of the News. But it seems to us that one is missing much who does not read it every week. Besides the regular local news, a full account of what Eastham people are doing, and all the regular features, next week's issue will give attention to 'Local crop prospects. A list of premiums at the County Fair. Exceptionally interesting offerings of 'advertisers. 208 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER Some unusual want ads. Lively letters from readers of the News. And many other things you might like to see. We are so desirous of having you know the paper as it now is that we make you this offer: Send a postal card requesting to have the paper sent you. Within two months we will send you a bill. You can then pay, at the yearly rate, for such copies as you have had or pay the year's subscription. We hope you will take this opportunity to learn how good the paper is. Respectfully yours, J. C. SMILEY, Circulation Manager [Contents to be printed on postal card and mailed about two days in advance of issue of paper.] THE NEXT ISSUE OF EASTHAM NEWS will contain More news and personals than usual. "A lot of farm suggestions sent in by K. D. "A good description of the new cheese factory. An outline of a new trolley route. Names of some candidates for reelection in November. Half a dozen letters from people you know. Some unusual "Want Ads." A full report of the Street Fair with awards. An account of the Second Street auto accident. Editorials on The Proposed New School, The Draining of the South Side, the Cooperative Church Program and Outlook for Prices of Apples. The Advertising Columns are Unusually Good. Price 5 cents a copy, $2.00 a year. ENLISTING READERS 209 Under average conditions where the publisher seeks to saturate the community with circulation, probably his best reliance is on solicitors. A good salesman who has been well instructed gets subscriptions of high character. He thoroughly enlists readers and establishes a point of contact with them which is valuable to the paper. Nor is the least desirable result of an intelligent agent's work the report he can carry from, the prospect to the editor as to what will add to the value of the paper's contents. It is not easy to get really good subscription solicitors, but they are to be had and are worth the patience it takes to find and to test them. The writer has had a number who got satisfactory results year after year. One practical suggestion may here be made, based upon the writer's personal experience in soliciting. While discussing the paper with a prospect, the canvasser should always keep the paper in his own hands. He should turn from feature to feature, dilating uponi each in turn, giving some idea how the matter is procured and using certain features to suggest others which do not appear in that particular issue. In this way, the prospect gets a more comprehensive idea of the paper's general plan and usefulness than he would be likely to gain by taking it for a year. Thenceforth his conception of it is more adequate. It is a strategic mistake for the agent to allow the copy of the paper to go from his hand into that of the prospect until after the canvass is completed. The writer has found it advantageous to let intelligent solicitors'pick up personal and other items and 210 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER want ads. They can also often stimulate worth-while communications to the paper from readers, or can at least get the ideas, write short letters themselves, and thus add to the reader's sense of being represented in the paper. It sometimes happens that the printing of items from some outlying center may attract a group of subscribers in that vicinity, or the giving of certain market prices or reports serve to enlist another group. As it is essential to level up the subscription list in remote parts of the trading area, such adjustments of contents may be very desirable. What About Premiums?-In the opinion of many who have most closely studied the matter, the premium or discount works in the wrong direction. It cheapens the paper in the mind of the reader, thus making him less likely to read it and respond to its advertising. Moreover, one who subscribes to the paper for the sake of a premium is, in his mind, getting something for nothing, while legitimate advertisers are not seeking people moved by that motive. The paper with a premium appears to be only one step away from the free paper which is a loose and inert thing in comparison with a legitimate paper. However, while discounts and premiums may be makeshifts, times may come when they are temporarily justified. If a premium is to be given, its demoralizing influence may be minimized by letting it take the form of some article really germane to the paper itself. For example, a local map, local directory or reference book of some kind may be offered as a premium at a very ENLISTING READERS 211 nominal price in connection with a subscription at full price. Saturation.-How large a percentage of the families in its territory a paper should number among its readers depends upon the community and upon the competition. In an Ohio town, there is a daily, without local competition, which reaches nineteen out of twenty of all the families in its city. We should say that the circulation showing should indicate that the paper has nearly all the families and should state why the remainder are not on the list. This, in the trading area of its town. What policy should be pursued outside this normal field will depend upon the value of this circulation to national advertisers and the cost to get and hold it. Circulation promotion is a branch of the publishing business in which there are many disappointments. A publisher will find that some of his pet schemes fall flat, while some simple plan will be found to pull beyond all expectations. Numerous good suggestions appear in the publishers' journals. These are worth watching, but undoubtedly house-to-house solicitation will always be found the chief source of reliance in the case of that marginal unresponsive element which remains after all other means have been tried. CHAPTER XIII HOW TO SELL ADVERTISING SPACE The chief business problem of the publisher of the local paper is the selling of his advertising space. Local publishing is largely a selling proposition. The town must be sold to its citizens, the paper to the people, and finally the principal product, space, must be sold to advertisers. In a sense, all that has been discussed in this book so far is preliminary to the selling of advertising space. This is not a simple problem. If we observe the successful selling of machinery to be employed in connection with the production of some commodity, we will note that the sale includes a thorough exposition of the conditions under which each machine is to be used in order to give the best results and satisfy the purchaser. This is true of the sale of advertising space. Advertising is, in effect, a machine to be used in the great business of distributing commodities. Through its use better results can be produced and at lower costs than are possible by the cruder methods which preceded it. And, as in the adoption of power machinery to do work formerly done by hand, conditions must be modified to fit the new machine. So merchandising as a whole must in a measure be modified to get the best results from the use of the new and potent instrument in distribution. 212 HOW TO SELL ADVERTISING SPACE 213 As most of the purchasers of space in the local paper are unacquainted with the application of advertising to retailing, it falls to the publisher who would fully market his product to indicate how it is to be used. This requires that he himself have a clear conception of what advertising does for retailing and how it does it, as well as that he know what constitutes a first-class advertising medium. The national advertisers are already trained in the use of space and to these he will need to sell only his town and his medium. But the larger part of his space must be sold to local retailers and among these it is exceptional to find more than a few who have any adequate idea of that modern retailing of which advertising is the chief motive force. Even in towns of considerable size, where there have been only old-line, easygoing publishers, the maker of a progressive paper who attempts thoroughly to cover the community will have before him a task of education. But the incentives to undertake this are sufficient, for while bringing about the new order of merchandising, he will at the same time be building his paper into the habits and business lives of the retailers. Fifty-two per cent of all goods sold are sold in towns of 20,000 population or less, but, according to Charles H. Mackintosh, former president of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World, fiftyfive per cent of possible sales in small towns are lost because of the ignorance of clerks. He adds that the boss retailer is not much better. What he needs is to get and apply the advertising idea and then to train himself and his clerks properly to handle customers who 214 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER are brought to the store as a result of advertising. The necessity for having a grasp of the fundamentals of advertising, a knowledge of their application to store policy and an adequate conception of his medium will tend to place the publisher in the position of unofficial merchandising and advertising leader in his town. From this point of vantage he will be able to render valuable service to merchants and through them to his readers and the town generally. The "Selling Story."-The publisher's first step in selling space is to write a "selling story" which shall set forth the advantages of the advertising method of merchandising and the high qualifications of his medium for thoroughly reaching the community. This prospectus should contain a map of the territory covered and a clear indication of the distribution of readers. Estimates of the purchasing power of the community in different lines and of incomes should be included so far as they are available. If the publisher has developed a dynamic advertising medium along the lines which we have suggested in Chapters viii, xi, and xii of this book, he may offer it with the confidence that through its intelligent use the cost of retailing can be materially reduced. Sufficient attention should be paid to the matter of giving merchants and all other regular and occasional space users an adequate idea of a dynamic advertising medium. They should be taught to think of the paper as a channel of communication built systematically in accordance with approved principles of advertising, and not as an organ in which advertising is a mere incidental. Cir HOW TO SELL ADVERTISING SPACE 215 culation figures should be given before they are askced for and with careful details and ample assurances. An interesting and impressive exhibit is often contained in the galley list of subscribers or other lists which the prospect can consult. However, the number of readers should always be kept subordinate to the intensive influence which the paper exerts over its readers. First, how is the paper used by readers and what does it do to them; second, how many readers are there? The following selling story will serve as a suggestion: The Eani-ham News as an Advertising Medium Fundamental Policy The Easthain News is not like the ordinary paper in which advertising is merely an incidental afterthought. Rather it is built from the ground up to serve as an advertising medium of the utmost effectiveness. It is built in the light of the fact that only through advertising can retail merchandising be carried on with the greatest economy and satisfaction to consumer and merchant, and that only through intelligent conscious effort can a really effective and economical medium be developed. An Efficient Medium The best medium must comply with three conditions: (1) the maximum proportion of the people who get the paper must read the advertisements; (2) the maximum number of the people who read 216 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER the advertisements must heed and respond to them; and (3) the maximum number of people within the territory professed to be covered must get the paper. What can be done by the publisher of a paper to cause it to fulfill these requirements?7 The News does two things to lead its readers to read advertising: it furnishes subject matter in the paper which is so practical in character as to make the accompanying advertisements germane and appropriate to the purpose of the paper and not foreign to it. It develops in its readers the habit of looking to the advertising to supplement the text. Second, the News encourages the kind of advertising which satisfies the reader's quest and is therefore worth reading. To cause people to have confidence in, and therefore to be influenced by the advertising, we first make a paper whose entire contents are such as to put the reader in an attitude of confidence, and, in the second place, we undertake to see to it that no advertiser betrays the reader's trust. His advertisement must not only be truthful, but it must contain such matter as is calculated to be helpful to the reader. The paper is conducted with the idea of establishing relations of mutuality and cooiperation not only between paperl and reader, but also between advertiserý and reader. We insure that a maximum number of people within our territory are readers of the paper by making a paper which they cannot afford to be without and by applying in our circulation department a system of intensive salesmanship which is calculated to get and hold readers. IEAS THAM AmO ITS NORMAL TRADING AREA BURY ROVE 78, LYS CROSSING 13BLISS 6obrh am TpI Bliss 1]?. ESTHA 4 2T~ EATHM ARR 97 astham 1035'~ Norflzfield 7k.JOHNSON RYE 67 I ROME dtWl2T. HONE ALE HON 84 Iibrnwr FP11 SMI1TH' COR. Fo.id tp. 49 218 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER The region intensively covered by the News service and circulation is embraced in the nine townships shown on the map' herewith and has a population of slightly over six thousand. These people are for the most part prosperous. They naturally come to Eastham to do their trading and nearly all their families are devoted readers of the News. Circulation in Detail There are 1,209 families in the city of Eastham, of which 1,035 regularly subscribe to the News. Of the 1,450 families in the ten townships outside the city, 1,274 regularly subscribe for the paper. Besides regular subscription copies, 103 advertisers, etc., receive the paper and an average of 63 copies are sold on the street or over the counter. Thus it appears that of the families living in Eastham and its trading area2,659 in number-2,475 are supplied each week with a copy of the News. 0 o 05 CU "O" 11 ) V4 -4 o N In Eastham City..... 4,386 1,209 1,035 Ten Townships...... 6,000 1,450 1,274 Advertisers, C o p y Sales, etc......... 166 Totals........ 10,386 2,659 2,475 I In using a map of territory covered, it might be well to mortise the block containing the map where the figures of circulation at each post office are given, so that the numbers can readily be changed to bring them down to date. HOW TO SELL ADVERTISING SPACE 219 The News also has 345 subscribers outside Eastham's trading area and uses 145 copies for miscellaneous purposes, so that our total printing at this time is 2,965 copies. The "News" and Merchants The News is constructed with a view to giving the most helpful cooperation to local merchants in selling to the people in this territory. We not only furnish a positive, scientifically built medium, but we also aid advertisers so to organize their merchandising programs as to get the best results. A store, like a factory, must be arranged to turn out the largest amount of goods at the lowest possible cost. To do this, wise use must be made of advertising. We specialize in advertising, just as the dealer specializes in hardware, dry goods or shoes or groceries. Our knowledge and experience are at the service of our advertisers. How to secure an advertising solicitor (or an advertising manager for a paper large enough to require one) will always be an open question. Probably he (or she) will have to be created by the publisher. The position is attractive to a person interested in the "selling game" and capable of grasping the propositions involved. Suitable timber may be developed through circulation: work. In any case, thorough education and training will be necessary. There is, however, plenty of literature, both periodicals and books, on the general subject of advertising, and, if the publisher has developed a dynamic medium, the solicitor will get much of his information from a study of his own paper. Addi 220 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER tional material may be obtained from trade and technical papers. "When a complete list of advertising prospects has been made, it will be profitable to size up the different possible advertisers to judge how each must be handled. The preliminary work, however, is a general program of education for all advertisers. Three things are to be impressed upon the possible buyers of space: first, the advertising idea, the fact that here is a source of power which is necessary to the most efficient merchandising; second, the methods by which this force is to be applied to retailing; and third, the merit of the medium consciously planned and built to do the work. These three things may well be the foundation of all the advertising of advertising which is done by the paper. Preceding chapters in this book give much material2 for this profitable form of propaganda, and additional facts may be gathered from reading and from a study of successful merchandising as carried on by dealers in towns near enough to the paper's field so that their experience can be quoted with profit to local retailers. When advertising is advertised in the columns of the paper itself, copy should be written with a view to educating the consumer as well as the distributor. In short, advertising must be sold to the whole community. Examples of this type of copy appear opposite. Following up the first selling story, circulars may profitably be sent to possible advertisers. Successive cards, each containing but a single idea, may also be used. Some of these suggestions are bound to take 2 See especially Chapter ii. 110"W TO SELL ADVERTISING SPACE 221. ADVERTISING MAKES GOODS CHEAPER HOW? By reducing the cost of handling them. To buy goods one must know about them, and about the store that sells them. The store can tell these things much more quickly and cheaply in advertising than by word of mouth through clerks. Also the store which advertises sells so much more goods than the old-fashioned store as greatly to reduce the expense per dollar of goods sold. You save by buying of the store which advertises. THE DEALER WHO ADVERTISES Sells much more goods than he would without advertising while his rent, clerk hire and other expenses remain about the same. That is one reason why he can afford to sell goods cheaper and why he does so if he is wise. LOOK FOR THE WISE ONES root. Merchandising and advertising literature should, so far as possible, be put into the hands of prospects. It is a good idea for the paper to have a lending library of well-chosen books on advertising. Trade papers, 222 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER marked to call attention to appropriate articles, may be sent where they will do the most good. Success depends on a constant pushing of such propaganda work. The following circular letters and cards to possible advertisers may be of interest: 1. [Imitation typtwriter.] Dear Sir: Have you noticed the advertising in the NEWS recently? If so, you may have been struck by the fact that our advertisers talk, not as though they were shouting into the air, but as though they were speaking to real people and were expecting to be believed. This is a comparatively new thing under the sun. There has for some time been a trend in this direction, but it is largely due to the efforts of the NEWS. It is not so true of any other paper of our acquaintance. HOW TO SELL ADVERTISING SPACE 223, This new attitude and tone of the advertisers means that there is taking place a revolution in advertising and in merchandising. It means that the right kind of advertising is found to be so resultful that a dealer can do through advertising what was impossible in the old days when readers largely discounted the statements of the little advertising they read at all. It means that advertising is a very powerful instrument in the hands of the retailer, a tool with whose help he can attract a volume of business which will give him good gains through very small gross profits, provided he buys right and arranges his store for the rapid handling of goods. The merchants of Eastham have in the NEWS an unsurpassed instrument with which to bring about economical merchandising, for the NEWS reaches ninetyfive per cent of the pur 224 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER chasing power of this community in a remarkably effective way. We shall be glad to go into particulars with you at your convenience. Respectfully, ARTHUR RUTLEDGE Advertising Manager, 2. My dear Mr. Smith: It seems fairly apparent to the writer that Eastham is getting far less than its share of the shoe trade. I am wondering whether it would not be possible for you, through a somewhat modified policy of doing business, greatly to increase your turnover and consequent profits. I am aware of your conservative attitude toward advertising, but advertising, in a paper with the hold upon its readers which the NEWS has been able to secure, is a new proposition. I think I can point out to you that our readers now take its advertising as seriously H10W TO SELL ADVETISING SPACE 225 as they do its news and editorial matter. I should be glad to submit some figures and suggestions for your consideration at your conven-f ience. Yours respectfully, ARTHUR RUTLEDGE Advertising Manager. 3. Have you noticed that most of the stores in this vicinity which are really growing make liberal use of space in the News? Perhaps "There's a reason." 4. Once it was the flashy, unstable stores that advertised. Now the most substantial, profitable and safe businesses are built on the advertising idea. 5. It is no longer common in this town to hear people say, "It's only advertising." They now take advertising to mean what it says. Think the News has had a hand in bringing about that result? 6. HEERE's TIRE ROAD TO SUCCESS. Lop off a part of the present gross profit. Tune up the store to handle goods rapidly and inexpensively. Advertise to inform and attract real people. The main reliance, however, especially in the early experience of the paper, must be upon personal solicitation. The solicitor's aim should be not merely to sell space here and there, but to convert merchants to the 226 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER advertising way of doing business. John Wanamaker, is quoted as saying, "Advertising does not jerk, it pulls." There is little use in getting a dealer to "try, a little advertising." It is better to wait until he has faith enough in the advertising idea to persevere until success comes. It is poor policy for the solicitor to take an orderfor space when it is practically certain to be a poor investment for the dealer. Advertising brings customers to a store, but if the customers are disappointed they will not come again. Unless the dealer is able to back up his advertising with desirable goods, prices and service, he will have spent his money to no purpose. Profitable advertising presupposes the right kind of store and organization for rapid turnover. The little shopkeeper who has kept afloat by haggling and pinching, is not built on the lines of a real merchant. The effort to ree*ducate him in any fundamental way may in many cases prove wholly fruitless. But a condition can be developed in which most of the goods sold in a town'will be sold under the advertising system. To bring this about, the solicitor must be competent to discuss the matter in a broad and convincing way. lie should know the extent of potential demand for each class of goods and be able to form some idea of how large a demand could be created. The solicitor who has a grasp of his subject will have no trouble getting an~ audience, and when he gets the confidence of retailers as to his ability and sincerity, will be able to show them by the use of specific facts that advertising is absolutely necessary to the most successful conduct of their busi HOW TO SELL ADVERTISING SPACE 227 ness; He will not omit from his sales talk the argument that good advertising merchandising makes for momentum, brings people back to the store again and again, makes all subsequent effort more resultful and builds good will which has a constantly increasing property value. Only after confidence and complete assent are gained, will he ask for the name on the dotted line. The "Honor Mark."-It will fall largely to the solicitor to exercise censorship over advertising copy and to induce dealers to write copy based upon the reader's need. Good Housekeeping Magazine permits advertisers whose goods it has tested to use a star in their advertisements by way of indicating the fact. In like manner the local publisher may find it desirable to avdopt a distinguishing mark, say a certain border, for the use of dealers who write put-your-self-in-his-place ads. This mark or border would come to mean much to the reader, and therefore to the advertiser. Indeed, it is not impossible so to impress the merits of the paper as a medium, that with its censorship policy and general reputation in the community, the dealer will esteem as a privilege, his opportunity to employ it as his official organ for reaching the people. Departments.- There is material gain in running advertising in departments next to reading matter on the same subject. Many daily papers run once a week a Food Page, Better Homes Page, Automobile Page and so on. In such a page, reader attention is focused upon a given subject to the great advantage of accompanying advertising copy. In such departments it is often possible to get the first advertising of merchants who are 228 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER reluctant to begin. Here the small ad is more conspicuous. It is a mistake, however, so to use up all utility matter as not to leave the impression that the paper aims to be helpful in practical matters all the time, and that utility matter is a part of the paper's business as much as is its news. Helping Advertisers with Copy.-Most live papers now arrange to help advertisers prepare copy. This is especially desirable with new advertisers who, though not large enough to afford an advertisement writer, are nevertheless organized to profit by advertising. The new advertiser is often inclined to use big space and superlatives. He assumes that what he says is sure to be discounted by the reader and so tries to throw in big measure. Such advertisements are what tend to discredit advertising. The influence of the paper's representative is here beneficial and with his help the dealer may soon be put in the way of preparing the right kind of copy. If it is proposed to help prepare copy, the regular advertising rates should be high enough to cover the labor involved. With some classes of small advertisers, it is desirable to prepare a series of half a dozen or more ads to appear in the order directed, thus giving fresh copy in each issue without constant attention. These ads can be set up during slack times in the printing office. How Much May a Dealer Spend for Advertising?Statistics which would furnish an adequate basis for calculating the dealer's justifiable advertising expenditure are not obtainable. The figures given opposite may, however, prove suggestive. Since they are based upon HOW TO SELL ADVERTISING SPACE 229 SUGGESTIVE FIGURES FOR ADVERTISING EXPENDITURE DEPARTMENT STORES Per Cent Bent................... 3.25 Salaries................ 9.65 *Advertising........... 4.67 Heat and Light......... 0.54 Delivery............... 1.02 Suppplies............. 0.38 Insurance and Taxes... 1.08 General Expenses....... 4.15 Depreciation and Shrinkage.................. 1.11 Bad Debts.............. 0.21 Total..............23.05 *Specialty store advertising costs can safely go as high as 5.50 per cent. GROCERY STORES Rent................. 3.07 Salaries................ 8.46 Advertising............ 1.83 Heat and Light....... 0.39 Delivery............... 2.53 Supplies.............. 0.37 Insurance and Taxes.... 0.58 General Expenses....... 0.45 Depreciation and Shrinkage.................. 0.76 Bad Debts............. 0.47 Total..............18.91 DRUG STORES Rent.............. 4.02 Salaries................ 10.95 Advertising.......... 2.76 Heat and Light........ 0.69 Delivery............... 0.51 Supplies.............. 0.36 Insurance and Taxes.... 1.21 General Expenses....... 4.49 Depreciation and Shrinkage.................. 0.47 Bad Debts.............. 0.19 Total..............25.65 MEN'S CLOTHING STORES Per Cent Rent.................. 3.04 Salaries............... 9.49 Advertising............ 3.16 Heat and Light......... 0.62 Delivery.............. 0.65 Supplies............ 0.43 Insurance and Taxes.... 1.07 General Expenses...... 2.31 Depreciation and Shrinkage................. 2.16 Bad Debts.............. 0.34 Total..............23.27 FURNITURE STORES Rent................. 5.04 Salaries............... 9.73 Advertising............ 3.72 Heat and Light......... 0.92 Delivery............... 0.94 Supplies.............. 0.41 Insurance and Taxes..... 1.57 General Expenses........ 1.10 Depreciation and Shrinkage................ 2.14 Bad Debts............. 1.94 Total.............. 27.51 HARDWARE STORES Rent................... 3.41 Salaries................10.11 Advertising............ 1.12 Heat and Light......... 0.43 Delivery............... 0.91 Supplies............... 0.60 Insurance and Taxes.... 0.99 General Expenses....... 2.01 Depreciation and Shrinkage.................. 0.52 Bad Debts............. 0.31 Total..............20.41 230 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SUGGESTIVE FIGURES FOR ADVERTISING EXPENDITURE- (Continued). SHOE STORES JEWLRYn STORES Per Cent Rent................3.21 Salaries...............s s a * #10.51 Advertising............. 2.65 Heat and Light.........1.10 Delivery................ 0.46 Supplies................ 0.30 Insurance and Taxes.... 1.03 General Expenses........4.36 Depreciation and Shrinkage.................. 0.50 Bad Debts............. 0.10 Total..............0 24.22 Per Cent Rent................... 4.98 Salaries................10.96 Advertising............. 2.85 Heat and Light......... 0.61 Delivery................ 00.09 Supplies................ 0.89 Insurance and Taxes. 1.32 General Expenses........3.95 Depreciation and Shrink. age.................. 0.95 Bad Debts.............. 0.21 Total.............. 26.81 all the stores reporting, including some which use no advertising, the averages given for advertising expenditure are probably far below what would be justified for dealers organized to do business on the most progressive merchandising plan. The accompanying figures, which give the expenses of retail stores in different lines of business, are based upon the experiences of stores in the United States and Canada. They were compiled from reports of the Harvard Committee on Economic Research, System magazine, Richey Data Service, and other sources by the National Association of Newspaper Executives. In the last analysis, the main purpose of retail advertising is so to increase the turnover as to show smaller total percentages of expense for doing business. Advertising by a retailer can only be justified economically by causing such reduction of expense on the one hand or by giving better service to customers. An abnormally large amount of advertising may wisely be used by a new store or a store which is build HOW TO SELL ADVERTISING SPACE 231 ing a reputation after newly adopting the advertising quick-turnover-and-small-profits policy. One of the items of expense in all advertising is that of establishing confidence among customers who are used to reading loud advertising only to find unsatisfactory buying. To overcome the distrust thus caused is costly for the dealer. Advertising which really helps in the building of good will is usually a justifiable investment, provided the policy of the store is sound enough to warrant the confidence thus inspired. More especially to illustrate the soundness of doing business on the advertising system, whereby increased demand is stimulated, let us examine in detail the table on pages 229-30. We see that in four items going to make up the retailing expenses-rent, heat and light, insurance and taxes, and depreciation and shrinkage-there is no increase with increase of sales. These four items in the eight lines of business here given amount to an average of 6.6 per cent. Another set in eight lines of business given amount to an average of 14.19 per cent. Now if we take all these lines and double the sales, the expenses in dollars for the first group of items remain stationary. The expense rate for these items, being spread over double the volume of business, would be reduced from 6.6 per cent to 3.3 per cent. The outlay for the second group would be increased by half. So the expense for these two groups of items for handling double the business would not be 6.6 per cent plus 14.19 per cent-20.79 per cent-but 3.3 per cent plus 10.65 per cent a total of 13.95 per cent, or a saving of 6.84 per cent. 232 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER It would therefore appear that if this expense ratio could be brought about by the outlay for advertising of a materially smaller amount, increased publicity would be amply justified. The limit at which increased advertising ceases to be profitable is that point at which it ceases to reduce the percentage of total selling expense. Organizations of Business Men.-There are many specific advantages which merchants gain by acting together, and one general advantage, namely, that of overcoming the inertia of the individual dealer. Special sales days, coioperative hospitality toward visitors, systematic plans for extending the trading area of the town, are a few of the directions in which united effort can be made rewarding. This is too large a subject to be discussed at any length in this book, but the local publisher may well act in this direction or inspire others to do so. Where there is no organization of merchants, a paper can often organize special sale days in which each merchant does something toward attracting buyers to town. The results of these cooiperative efforts are often surprisingly good. Advertising from Competing Towns.- What shall be the policy of the publisher toward taking the advertisements of merchants in competing towns? Some publishers strictly exclude the advertisements of merchants in neighboring cities. Some take freely all such advertising offered. Undoubtedly policies must differ in different localities and under differing conditions. Clearly if a pub HOW TO SELL ADVERTISING SPACE 233 lisher is convinced that the concentration of trade in his own town is in the long run for the best interests of the town's people, he is within his rights to exclude the competing advertisers. On the other hand, if he is convinced that by reason of local conditions certain lines of goods cannot be furnished in his town in sufficient variety nor at prices to compete with larger towns, it would seem that he is acting in the direction of the greatest good to the greatest number when he carries out-of-town advertising. Local merchants themselves sometimes object to excluding out-of-town competitors' ads on the score that it looks as though the local dealer could not hold his own in the face of such competition. Church Advertising.- Elsewhere we have discussed the large promise there seems to be in church advertising. The versatile solicitor will find ways of applying the same fundamental principles to church publicity as have been recommended for handling commercial advertising. Valuable cooperation can be had in this direction from some of the general church bodies which are encouraging local churches to advertise.3 There is no place where work will pay better in the near future than in inspiring and guiding church advertising. If a church is about to try advertising, it is better for the solicitor tactfully to get into a position of adviser and see that the first advertising is done in a way to give satisfactory results, so that continued use of space and a good example for other churches are assured. SAddress Herbert H. Smith, Presbyterian Publicity Board, TWitherspoon Bldg., Philadelphia. 234: THE COMMUMITY NEWSPAPERt Other Noncommercial and Miscellaneous Advertising.There are reasons for expecting a large growth in the demand for display space outside of mercantile advertising, and the advertising manager should find ways of promoting this business. There seems to be no reason why the problem of getting the business of noncommer-. cial advertisers should not be attacked with the same energy as is expended in the building up of manufacturing and mercantile advertising. The Solicitor's Work.-The work of the advertising solicitor is trying. When business is coming his way, enthusiasm is natural. If a prospect in whom he has been working for some time "comes across" unexpectedly on a fine morning, he is apt to feel as though no task were too difficult. In his enthusiasm he may even attack the old hard-shell, reactionary merchant who has never used a line of advertising in his life. On the contrary, when on a wet Monday things refuse to budge, he feels that life is not very well worth living. It is, therefore, not easy for the salesman to keep sawing wood. But success depends upon doing just that, and Tasks in hours of insight willed Can be in hours of gloom fulfilled. In other words, the solicitor should have a regular program to follow and be able to report at night a consistent day's work done. There is much temptation to stop and talk with customers and the solicitor may excuse himself for doing this on the ground that he is cultivating good feeling. But this excuse will not do. The aim should be to learn how to call upon a prospect HOW TO SELL ADVERTISING SPACE 235,or customer in the shortest possible time without rude-. ness or the omission to talk over things which should be presented. This is a fine art. One solicitor will call upon a customer, make a favorable impression, and ascertaining that there is no occasion to stay longer, he wil get out of the office in ten minutes where another man would spend half an hour with no better results. The one who knows how to get away quickly is the one who is most likely to get an audience next time he calls, when perhaps it is important for him to have it. Another thing which the solicitor can do to help to insure a welcome is to have in mind some interesting business suggestion to make to the customer. The, solicitor going from merchant to merchant and reading the advertising papers should have good hints constantly on hand and these can be given in a way to show sympathetic interest in the customer's business. The progressive merchant is always on the alert for ideas and is appreciative of suggestions, many of which will incidentally illustrate to the merchant the value of advertising. CHAPTER XIV RATES This book aims to make two blades of grass grow where one grew before: to outline a newspaper which shall perform greater service to readers and advertisers per unit cost of production. The great handicap under which advertising and the advertising medium now suffer is lack of attention, interest and confidence on the part of readers. This causes a waste in advertising and publishing amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Perhaps the publisher of the local paper is in a position to do more than any other man toward eliminating this great waste, and toward making of advertising the efficient motive power of merchandising. He can make of his paper a powerful and well-nigh wasteless medium. By the application of demonstrated principles he will confer a large net gain upon the users of his paper. He should also enjoy, as a moderate percentage on the economic gain which he brings to others, a materially enhanced profit. Professor Carver of Harvard says that telling the truth is one of the greatest labor-saving inventions of all time. The local publisher can capitalize that idea in the building of a medium. In other words, the planning and intensive work urged in this book should yield a good revenue. 236 RATES 237. Publishing businesses of all kinds have been regarded as inherently risky. This is due to the fact that a large part of the expense of conducting the business must be incurred before it is known whether or not sales will be sufficient to pay expenses. The merchant has his unsold goods on his shelves. Not so the publisher. He must write and set type for his paper just the same, and at about the same expense, although half his readers and advertisers desert him. For this reason, the publisher must aim to make a larger net profit on his turnover than the merchant or manufacturer. Where the dealer is contented with from three to twelve per cent -depending upon the line of goods he carries-the publisher should have from fifteen per cent to twenty-five per cent. Perhaps an ideal situation for the publisher who is making a first-class paper is that in which, after paying himself a fair salary charged to expenses, he is showing a net profit equal to twenty-five per cent of the gross business. Such conditions would make it possible for a publisher to establish a generous reserve fund withli which to meet emergencies. The earnings of the newspapers and magazines of the whole country are about one third from sale of papers and two thirds from the sale of advertising space. But some types of papers receive a larger proportion of their income from advertising. The trade and technical papers, for example, get more than five times as much revenue from advertising as from circulation. The average for the local paper is about three dollars to one.' SThe census for 1921 shows the receipts for the year of all 238 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER There is a measure of discretion on the part of a publisher as to whether he will have a low subscription price and a relatively high advertising rate, or the reverse. This is not so much a question of equity as of expediency. In any case the whole revenue of a paper finally comes from readers. What the reader does not pays in the price of the advertised goods which he pay in the price of the paper per year or per copy, he buys. Readers as a whole pay for advertising as a whole as truly as each pays for the individual paper he reads. Rates a Complicated Problem.-There is no proper basis for fixing either a subscription price or an advertising rate according to the expense which is logically chargeable to each. All the expenses of a paper are incurred for the sake of the reader; at the same time, all the expenses incurred for the sake of the reader are also beneficial to the advertiser, since they help to improve the paper as a medium. Beginning a new paper, a publisher can estimate the number of readers he may expect and the amount of advertising space he can sell and fix the two prices so as to yield a gross income which will pay expenses and show a net profit of, say, twenty-five per cent. But although such calculations newspapers and periodicals in the country to have been $278,006,382 for sales and $528,299,378 for advertising. Edmund Walker & Co., Newspaper Accountants and Auditors, New York, report the average sales of 17 papers averaging 8,200 copies, giving receipts from sales as $36,429.18, and from advertising as $98,264.12, or a total of $134,693.30. The expenses of these papers averaged $112,788.89, leaving a profit of $21,904.41. This figure for expenses did not include an allowance for salaries to owners, but did include all other expenses, such as depreciation, bad debts, etc. RATES 239 are worth while, they are so uncertain in various ways as to leave much to be desired as bases for establishing rates. Price of Paper per Copy or per Year.-Probably the subscription price will depend more upon competition and the ability and willingness of readers to pay, than upon any fancied cost bases or even upon considerations of equity. In the long run, that price is best which is conducive to the making of the best advertising medium. If only 1,500 subscribers could be held at $2 per year and 2,500 could be carried at $1, the latter price is the better of the two. On the other hand, if through education of the readers, even at an expense cf $2,500 for circulars and solicitors, the 2,500 could be held at $2 each, there would be a great gain by reason of the fact that the paper would be more highly esteemed and more carefully read at the higher subscription price. In other words, it is advantageous to set the subscription price high enough so that some sales work is necessary, thus making possible a more thorough enlistment of readers. The whole circulation policy, including the fixing of the price, should be based upon the idea that circulation itself is mainly a means to an end, namely that of enlisting readers of advertisements. It is a mistake however, to allow readers to feel that they are being overcharged. And of this impression it may not be possible to disabuse their minds if they are familiar with one or more good papers at low prices. Thus the price of competing papers is likely to exert an influence upon the decision. 240 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER Whereas the total cost of producing a paper ready for the reader may furnish no guide to subscription price, how about the extra cost incurred to add a name to the list and send the paper for a year? This is easily determined, but is the resulting figure of any use? It may cost $1.25 per year for the white paper, presswork, mailing and clerical labor to send a paper one year, and yet the proper subscription price, taking other things into account, may be only one dollar. In England, publishers often say that they expect to get from circulation enough net to pay for their white paper, but no one ever seems to know exactly why. On the other hand, papers are often sold for much less than the value of the white paper on which they are printed. The Saturday Evening Post, for example, selling for five cents, must cost for paper alone, per average copy, at least twice that amount. Various industrial papers are sold for three or five dollars when the cost of paper, presswork, binding and mailing ranges from ten to twenty dollars a year. A local weekly if priced as low accordingly might conceivably sell as low as 25 cents a year! Sale Must Be Pushed.-No weekly paper is likely to be made so good as to sell itself at the usual price of from $1 to $2.50 per year to a large enough percentage of the people adequately to cover its field. It must have selling effort put behind it. But although the most common prices for local weeklies are $1.50 and $2.00, it may be desirable for a new paper, unable to afford sales work, to make its temporary price as low as 50 cents, in order to put itself, with as little RATES 241 delay as possible, into a position to justify charging fair prices for advertising. If such a course is pursued, it should be made clear that 50 cents is only a temporary price. Of course, with a thoroughly efficient medium as the aim, it is wise, capital permiting, to build a circulation at fair prices. It is much better, however, to sell the paper at a trial.price and thereby justify advertising, than to take advertising at a price which the circulation does not begin to justify. For the sake of convenience, we have been using the weekly paper as our illustration. The price of dailies is, however, to be governed by the same considerations. The compilation of mail rates of daily papers given on pages 242 and 243 will show the practice in this matter. Fixing Advertising Rates.-It is common to determine the cost of advertising by dividing the total expense less circulation receipts by the amount of advertising carried. Thus T. H. Alvord2 instances a weekly which cost $7,217.06 per year to run. This paper, which collected $1,575 from circulation, therefore had the remaining $5,642.06 to be met by advertising earnings. This sum, divided by the total number of inches of advertising, gave $0.201 as the cost per column inch for advertising. Jason Rogers, publisher of the New York Globe, proceeds in a similar way. He says:' In reaching the cost of a line of advertising, our newspapers take the total operating expense-$2,678,591 (in 2 Publishers' Auwiliary, December, 1920. * Editor and Publisher, March 4, 1922. 242 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER MAIL SUBSCRIPTION RATES OP ALL DAILY NEWSPAPERS IN UNITED STATES* Based upon the Reports of Standard Rate and Data Service Total Under $4.00 $5.00 $6.00 Papers $3. 00 $3.00 $6. 00 Alabama.......... 17 - 2 3 3 3 6 Arizona........... 16 -- - 1 3 12 Arkansas.......... 21 - 1 7 3 6 4 California......... 57 - - 2 15 20 20 Colorado.......... 28 - - 5 7 9 7 Connecticut....... 25 - - 1 6 18 Delaware......... 4 - - 1 - 3 - District of Columbia 4 -... 2 2 Florida........... 25 - - - 1 12 12 Georgia........... 25 - - 1 4 2 18 Idaho............ 7 - --- 1 2 4 Illinois............ 93 - 6 33 37 11 6 Indiana........... 98 3 14 41 28 6 6 Iowa..............40 - 1 14 18 7 - Kansas........... 51 3 7 19 15 5 2 Kentucky......... 22 - 3 9 8 2 - Louisiana......... 6 - - - 3 1 2 Maine............ 12 - 1 1 6 3 1 Maryland......... 9 - - 2 2 4 1 Massachusetts...... 47 - 4 2 4 24 13 Michigan......... 50 - 4 19 13 6 8 Minnesota........ 33 - 2 9 16 5 1 Mississippi......... 8 - - - 1 5 2 Missouri.......... 38 1 9 13 10 - 5 Montana.......... 10 - - - 2 1 7 Nebraska......... 17 1 7 6 1 2 Nevada........... 7 -... 4 3 New Hampshire.... 10 - -- 4 5 1 New Jersey........ 34 - 3 - 6 9 16 New Mexico....... 5.... 2 3 New York........ 117 1 8 9 22 38 39 North Carolina..... 24 - - 1 4 10 9 North Dakota..... 8 - - 2 3 1 2 Ohio............. 110 - 19 33 30 20 8 * Fourth, Estate, November, 1921. These words precede the table as there printed: "The following interesting information was prepared by A. W. Peterson, general manager of the Waterloo, Iowa, Evening Courier, and past president of the Inland Daily Press Association. "Mr. Peterson is not only a successful publisher himself but active in any movement that will benefit the profession as a whole and In research for facts that have a bearing on the newspaper business." RATES 243 IN UNITED STATES - (Continued). Oklahoma..........39 - 4 5 10 12 8 Oregon.......24 - 1 2 5 10 6 Pennsylvania.......135 1 10 18 54 43 9 Rhode Island.... 8 - 1 1 - 3 3 South Carolina......13 - - 1 2 4 6 South Dakota.... 8 - - 1 5 2 - Tennessee..........12 - 1 1 5 1 4 Texas.............68 - 3 6 24 17 18 Utah.............. 4 - - - - - 4 Vermont............9 - - 3 3 2 1 Virginia............19 - 2 6 3 6 2 Washington.........26 - - 1 12 6 7 West Virginia.......20 - 1 2 6 7 4 Wisconsin..........42 - 1 20 17 1 3 Wyoming...........4 - - - - 3 1 Grand Total... 1,509 9 109 300 420 355 316 1921), less circulation revenue, $1,063,810, leaving a remainder of $1,614,78l. Dividing this remainder by 6,915,000 lines of advertising, we produce a cost of 23.4 cents per line. In order to ascertain the average net -rate, we take net advertising earnings, $1,7~67,301, and, divide by 6,915,000 lines of advertising, which gives us an average net rate of 25.5 cents per line. No simpler or more accurate system has been devised. It is a method now adopted and employed by newspapers all over the country. This method is a good one for use by the developed paper in checking up, but gives only a rough approximation in the case of a new or undeveloped paper where the amount of advertising can be only roughly estimated. Undoubtedly a publisher can get some idea of the amount of business his paper will be likely to attract 244 THE COMMhIUNITY NEWSPAPER by what similar papers are doing in other towns. This calculation will give him something better than a guess as to what his rates should be. Mechanical Cost.-Another figure which will have bearing on the subject of rates is the cost of setting up the type per column inch. This the publisher will find as he would the cost of a piece of job work. Also he may add to the cost of composition the cost of white paper and presswork per column inch-found by adding to the cost of the white paper to run an edition of his paper, the cost of presswork, and dividing by the total column inches (running inches one column wide) on a sheet. The composition will probably cost from six to nine cents per column inch and the paper and presswork for, say, 2,000 copies, perhaps five to eight cents, making the mechanical cost to execute an inch of advertising, perhaps 14 cents. If each inch of advertising sells for, say, 30 cents, it pays toward general expenses and profits, 16 cents per inch. Advertising taken for less than mechanical cost is, of course, taken at a loss; the paper is poorer with it than without it, whereas advertising paying anything over mechanical cost makes a contribution toward general expense and profits. Most local publishers will fix advertising rates withl the expectation that more or less free service will be given to advertisers in the way of advice and help in the preparation of copy. The expense of this should, of course, be covered in the rate, and this may well make an increase of several cents per inch. There should also be considered, in connection witlh RATES 245 the fixing of rates, the question of whether reading matter shall be increased for the purpose of maintaining a certain fixed ratio of reading matter to advertising. In our opinion, this is a mistaken idea, in that advertising should be of such a character as to be welcomed by the paper's readers and not penalized for its increase. Sliding Scale.-In fixing the base rate, the question will arise as to how much reduction should be made in the case of large users of advertising, such as department stores. The metropolitan dailies usually make a rate considerably lower for a large number of lines per year. Whether there is good reason for this is a matter of doubt. It is quite possible that this reduction to large users is due more to pressure from the purchaser of space than to considerations of equity or wise policy. It is doubtful whether the interests of readers, of advertisers as a whole, or of the paper are served by placing an artificial and unnecessary handicap on the small merchant. He labors at a disadvantage in any case, since he has a small stock and small sales over which to distribute the cost of space. Moreover, the interests of readers would seem to dictate that as many dealers as possible should be encouraged to set forth their offerings.4 The rate and discount policy regarding foreign advertising will have a bearing upon the question of base rate. This question will be treated at considerable length in the following chapter. SIn England, many papers not only do not give lower rates to larger users of space, but penalize the advertiser who uses very large space, thus overshadowing the smaller merchant. 246 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER Church Rate.-Should a lower rate be made for church advertising? This is a new subject and one which will soon need to be met. Some papers reduce the rate as much as fifty per cent, though probably more papers charge full rates than make any reduction. The churches which advertise will probably offer much copy for the reading columns, but for the most part this will be worth printing for its news value, so that this consideration need not affect the question. On the other hand, the stimulation of church advertising will call for much sales and educational work and considerable help in the preparation of copy. It seems to us, therefore, that the wisest policy will be to charge the churches full local display rates, push for business, and give every possible service. A similar policy seems to be indicated for other noncommercial space users such as libraries, art museums, schools and departments of the local government. How about fixing the price of classified advertising? This costs more to solicit and more to set, but it is interesting and peculiarly valuable to the reader. The usual policy seems to be to get about the same per column inch as for display.5 The Principle of Differential.--The whole question of variation of rates for different classes of advertisers is a prolific subject of discussion among publishers, advertisers and advertising agencies. There seem to be two different angles of approach. From one point of view, advertising space is treated strictly as merchandise and priced accordingly; while the quanIFor further treatment, see Chapter xvL RATES 247 tity of space bought and the cost of selling may be taken into consideration, no attention is to be paid to the use that is made of the space, the value of the space to the advertiser, or the value of the copy to the reader. Seen from the other angle, advertising space is something more than white paper to be filled with words. Other considerations should influence the making of rates; and although, of course, the average rate must be such as to pay cost and a fair profit, there may properly be a wide difference in the charge dependent upon such things, as limit of value of the advertising, the contribution to the reader interest of the paper, and the advertiser's ability to pay. Take a paper charging an average of 40 cents a column inch. The actual cost to furnish an additional inch of advertising, that is, the immediate expense incurred on account of filling the order for that inch might be, say, 18 cents. This would include composition of the ad, white paper and presswork, but would not include its pro rata of any general or overhead expense. Each advertisement inserted at 40 cents would pay its mechanical expense and contribute 22 cents per inch toward general expense and profit. Any advertisement paying more than 18 cents net would leave the paper better off than it would be not to have run it. Now what if it should be apparent that there was a large class of business to whom the 40 cent rate is prohibitive, but who could afford to pay 30 cents? What should be the attitude toward this business not now run, but which, if run, would make the paper better off by 12 cents per inch? 248 THE COMMUMITY NEWSPAPER Is it not clear that a different attitude may reasonably be taken toward the 18 cents which, of course, every piece of business should pay, and the contribution above the 18 cents toward general expense and profit? Is it not possible that there are many lines which could pay 7, 12, or 17 cents toward general expense and profit, who cannot pay 22 cents and so do not advertise? Is it not probable that a policy based upon a charge above mechanical expense according to value of service would add to the utility of the paper to readers, serve a wider range of industries and make a better prof-it for the owner? Of course, the same rate should always be charged to competitors, and care should be taken to have it thoroughly understood that rates, once fixed, are invariable. General Policy.- To take advertising and publishing seriously in the future involves the creation of an advertising medium vastly more effective than has ever yet been made for the local community. Rates should be high enough to pay for its service. They should pay a good profit besides. There are wide differences in the minimum and average rates' charged by different papers of similar circulation. The dynamic medium is justified in obtaining something approximating the top price. I'For specimen rates and similar information, see Appendix IL. CHAPTER XV NATIONAL ADVERTISING National advertising calls for very different handling from that which local advertising requires. The local publisher does not often come into personal contact with a national advertiser, and in many cases has no correspondence with him, since the business is usually carried on through an advertising agency. Moreover, except by the rejection of undesirable copy, he can do very little to improve copy which an advertiser sees fit to use. On the other hand, national advertisers are, as a rule, skillful; the copy they provide is usually attractive and interesting to the reader; and in their case the publisher is relieved of the necessity of educating his client as he must do in the case of the local dealer. The most important thing in relation to national advertising is that the publisher have a complete, wellthought-out and easily defensible policy with regard to it. He will, if he is wise and values his own time and peace of mind, decide in advance just what he will do and what he will not do for the foreign advertiser and for the agency which handles the foreign advertiser's business. The publisher needs all his time and nervous energy to handle his local business, and cannot afford to waste them in haggling with the correspondents who seek concessions and unreasonable service. 249 250 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER It is our opinion, based upon years of personal experience and some investigation of the subject, that publishers as a class have themselves to blame for the nagging and unsatisfactory questions and propositions which come from national advertisers and their agencies. If the unreasonable offers were not very largely accepted, the national advertiser would not spend his good money in useless correspondence. There is no call to blame the makers of these offers. They are merely pursuing the only course they know to buy space in the country papers at the lowest possible; price. If the publisher will adopt and always adhere to rates and rules which he knows to be just, the question will largely settle itself and the publisher will be left free to develop his medium and his local business while, at the same time, he is getting his share of the national copy. It is within the power of the publisher to answer most of these vexing questions, if not before they are asked, at least before any heated discussion arises. And the national advertiser and agency will respect him the more for his straightforwardness and his ability to run his own business. He must first have a medium worth standing up for and then stand up for it without compromise or even the appearance of compromise. If a publisher has built the kind of medium which his field justifies, he should then proceed to sell it to national advertisers and agencies by the use of the sort of circulars and statements calculated to carry conviction. In this publicity matter he may well go NATIONAL ADVERTISING 251 into the resources, income and purchasing power of his town and circulation more fully than has usually been done in the past. How many people are there? How much do they earn? What part of the purchasing power is reached by the paper? How intimate is the paper with its readers and how much influence does it have with them? These are among the questions which the local publisher may profitably answer for the benefit of the national advertiser. If in many households the paper has become, as it were, a member of the family, and a member which does much of the buying, this fact should be pointed out and such testimony as seems feasible should be given. The presence of the paper's full quota of local advertising and a well-developed classified department will also carry weight. Of course, proved circulation figures should be freely given and graphic representations can here be employed to advantage. Various kinds of printed matter should thus combine to sell the town and the medium as fully as possible. Selling Story for the National Advertiser.-The publisher needs to sell his town and territory as well as his paper to the national advertiser. The more attractive the field as a market for the advertiser's product, the more incentive will he have for covering it with his advertising. The following rough suggestions as to points to be covered in circular matter may be of service. A map like that on page 217 should be here used, with circulation figures for each post office brought down to date. 252 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER The most important things to be impressed upon the foreign advertiser are the purchasing power of the people and their responsiveness to advertising in the paper in question. The way in which to move foreign advertising is to make a paper which deserves the business and then clearly and plainly to give the facts. An important obstacle to the use of smaller papers by national advertisers is the difficulty of getting concise information as to what the publisher has to sell. The following survey, carefully compiled by the newspaper, with sources of information clearly stated, would serve to give him information of this sort: SURVEY OF EASTHAM AND ITS TRADING AREA 1. Population 1910 census 1920 census Trading area (see map) Total population normally trading at Eastham2. Banks State and Savings Banks- Resources $----- National Banks -Resources $------- Total Bank Clearings last year $ 3. Value of Property Assessed value of property of Eastham and the ten townships in its trading area $4. Schools High Schools Pupils Other Grades Pupils Parochial Pupils Private Pupils Total Pupils 5. Principal Industries [Give as complete an idea as possible of the income of the people, the number receiving salaries and amount, NATIONAL ADVERTISING 25 253, the number of wage-earners and total pay roll. Give agricultural and other resources as far as possible; also, if possible, an estimate of total income of all the people.] 6.,Stores [Give number of stores in each line.] 7. Special Information [Number of automobiles in town. Number of gas and electric meters. Number of telephone subscribers.] [Number of churches of each denomination.] 8. Other miscellaneous facts indicative of the value of the town as a market. After giving a good idea of the territory as a market, the next thing is to point out in detail and prove how well the paper covers the territory (refer to selling story given in Chapter xiii, "How to Sell Advertising.'y) The utmost frankess should be observed as to thoroughness of circulation. Vague or evasive statements, like downright misrepresentation, are heavily discounted by space buyers. Not to be candid and accurate is, in these days, to run grave risk of not getting the business. The Audit Bureau of Circulations' is a mutual organization of publishers, advertisers and advertising agents, which exists to audit and certify to circulations of newspapers and magazines. It makes a very careful examination of books and other evidence. Its reports as to the extent and character of circulation are very generally relied upon by space buyers. The Bureau has about 1800 members of all classes. It is stated that of the dailies of 5,000 circulation and over, 1 202 South State St., Chicago, and 42nd St. and Broadway, New York. 254 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER those having 85 per cent of the total circulation are audited by the Bureau. The rates of charge are based upon circulation: below 5,000, $1 per week; 5,000 to 10,000, $1.50 per week; 10,000 to 15,000, $2.00 per week; up to $10 per week for circulations of more than 500,000. Whether this audit or post-office statement is used, details of character tend to inspire confidence with advertisers. Merchandising Department.- The publisher is in a strategic position to act as a connecting link between the manufacturer and the local dealers who sell his goods, and can perform helpful service which may properly be regarded as an extension of the office of his medium. Especially valuable are the publisher's services in this connection if his relations with local merchants are such as they should be if he has fully developed the local advertising of his paper. But here again the publisher needs to make up his mind just what he will do and what he will not do. It is apparently easy for a publisher to get himself into the position of errand boy for his advertisers, peddler of his goods, and insurer of their superiority.2 Since I1n 1921 the National Association of Newspaper Executives ad-opted the following " Standard of Merchandising Practice for Newspapers,"I prepared by Standing Committee on Agency Relations, M. E. Foster, chairman, and Bert N. Garstin, George M. Burbach, A. G. Newmyer, and Frank D. Webb, members: "It is the opinion of this committee that newspapers conductng service and merchandising departments should assist advertisers in every legitimate manner to make their campaign successful. The legitimate functions of a merchandising and service department are: "IIFIRST-To study the local market and trade territory and be able to report intelligently thereon for both local and national advertisers. NATIONAL ADVERTISING 255 IMPORTANT To ADVERTISERS Points 1 Survey giving information in regard to the distribution and sale of particular product and its competitors.......................... 1,037.5 2 Ability to discuss the local market and suggest methods of cultivating it............................. 816.5 3 General statistics in regard to the market....................... 780.5 4 Route lists of retailers and jobbers 681.0 5 Introduction of salesmen to leading buyers.................... 573.5 6 Letters to retailers on newspaper's stationery..................... 570.5 7 Broadsides mailed to retailers..... 395.5 8 Trade paper sent to retailers...... 344.5 9 Securing promises of window displays......................... 339.0 10 Portfolios of advertising for use of salesmen...................... 326.0 11 Conducting window display contests......................... 253.0 12 Installing window displays....... 234.0 13 Selling merchandise to retailers... 157.5 14 Selling the advertising to the manufacturer's salesmen............ 144.5 the policies of different papers range all the way from doing nothing whatever of this research of merchan" SECOND-To furnish such information for prospective advertisers and to make investigations which may be general in scope and applicable to many accounts, but to insist that the identity of the proposed advertiser be made known before reporting information compiled on a specific line. "1 THIRD-To endeavor to educate the dealer in better merchandising methods and to insist that advertised goods be furnished customers rather than 'just as good' substitute. "1FOURTH-To encourage adequate merchandising by supplying data maps, route lists to the trade for the use of salesmen of the manufacturer or advertiser who has made a bona fide contract for advertising space. 256 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER MOST REASONABLE TO ASK Legi- Not Not Legiti- legiti- specimate, mate, fied, per per per cent cent cent 1 Survey of particular product........... 83 2 15 2 General statistics... 80 4 16 3 Suggest methods of cultivating market. 79 6 15 4 Route lists......... 75 8 17 5 Letters to retailers.. 61 23 16 6 Introduction of salesmen.......... 55 27 18 7 Trade paper....... 44 35 21 8 Arranging for windows............ 43 35 22 9 Broadsides........ 39 41 20 10 Portfolios......... 37 44 19 11 Window display contests........... 34 43 23 12 Install window displays............ 14 61 25 13 Selling advertising to salesmen........ 13 61 26 14 Selling merchandise. 8 73 19 dising to doing everything asked of it, it will require study and careful consideration to determine a feasible policy. Mr. Don Bridge, Merchandising Manager of the Indianapolis News,3 sent a questionnaire to one hundred seventy-five advertising agencies listing fourteen kinds of merchandising service and asking the agencies to say, first, what services were most valuable to them, and second, what services it was reasonable to " FIFTH-To decline requests for service that are clearly not within the province of newspaper, such as selling goods or other canvassing, or the payment of bills for printing and postage of letters, broadsides, etc." ' Fourth Estate, November 26, 1921. NATIONAL ADVERTISING 257 ask the newspaper to perform. Each agency was asked to rank the questions in the order of importance, giving fourteen points to the most important, thirteen to the second, down to one for the fourteenth. Ninety-eight agencies replied with results as given in the tables on pages 255 and 256. C. F. Brown, director of advertising of E. I. du Pont de Nemours Co., outlines the special service which should be expected from newspapers as, first, educating the dealer, and, second, furnishing actual data. His specific outline, as follows, is very interesting and could be used as a guide to publishers in standardizing practices in their merchandising departments. 1. Educating the Dealer (a) On the value of advertising in general. (b) On the value of newspaper advertising. (c) On the value of stocking nationally advertised brands. (d) On the value of advertising regularly, nationally advertised products which he handles. (e) On the acceptance of the principle that the function of the manufacturer is to advertise his goods nationally, whereas it is the function of the dealer, through local newspaper advertising, to hold up his hand in a community and say, "Here's Where You can Buy these Nationally Advertised Goods." (f) In specific instances, at the request of the manufacturer, the newspaper should cooperate in selling for the national advertiser a local news 258 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER paper advertising campaign over the dealer's name. 2. Furnishing data (a) As to general business conditions in the territory. (b) As to comparative grading of dealers in general value to manufacturer. (c) As to the names of dealers handling the manufactured products in that town (often on account of jobber distribution, the manufacturer cannot obtain accurate data covering all dealers handling his merchandise). (d) As to approximate amount of stocks carried by dealers, with general or specific information.4 There are doubtless promising possibilities in the merchandising department, among them a chance to show real interest in the advertiser and hospitality to his representatives who come to town. Certainly the closer touch with the real handling of the product and of the results of advertising are of advantage to publisher and advertiser alike. On the other hand, there is a point at which to draw the line between that service which is a legitimate extension of the furnishing of a medium and the work which is alien to publishing and perhaps even a substitute for advertising. At all events, the first step toward serving foreign advertisers is to make the right kind of medium; the second, to tell all about the resources, peculiarities and trade conditions in the " Editor and Publisher, July 9, 1921. NATIONAL ADVERTISING 259 town; third, to give an adequate statement of the strength and merits of the medium, backed by facts, figures, maps and testimonials; and the fourth is to establish a merchandising service. The publisher should not, however, spend much time or money on merchandising service while any part of one, two and three remain unfinished. It seems to us that the publisher could improve relations with his national advertisers by giving them and the agencies full information as to the reasons for advertising rates, such as the cost of the column inch. The notion that advertising costs the publisher almost nothing is altogether too common. With the greater frankness which is coming to prevail between the seller and buyer of all sorts of commodities and services, it would seem to be a good idea to print in the paper. periodically, a report of expenses and earnings by departments, dividing the expenses less circulation receipts by the number of inches or advertising, so as to show the cost of advertising per column inch. This could hardly fail to be appreciated by national advertisers, and should silence some of the people who try to purchase advertising for a fraction of its production cost. The Advertising Agency.- A generation or more ago, the advertising agency was a rather obnoxious middleman standing between the national advertiser and the local paper and collecting toll for what the country editor regarded as very slight service. Moreover, the agency was skilled in obtaining advertising at rates which in many cases were ridiculously low. There 260 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER wasn't much love lost between the advertising agent and the country editor. At the present time, however, advertising agencies are enormous creators and developers of advertising. They are large organizations employing many very skillful men and women. Not only is the agency as a whole a specialist in the stimulation and handling of advertising, but with each agency there are various specialists highly trained for and experienced in different departments of the work. That the agency performs a valuable function in the advertising world there is to-day no doubt. A large part of the national advertising run in local papers is sent in by the agencies and for this service publishers usually pay them fifteen per cent commission. Many publishers are objecting to this custom on the ground that the agency does not work for the paper, but for the advertiser. They contend that there is no more reason why the publisher should pay a commission to the agency than that the building-supply man should pay one to the architect. They further urge that as the agency is in duty bound to put its client's advertisement into the best medium, it has no option and cannot, therefore, legitimately influence business to the paper paying a commission, or away from the one which declines to do so. The publisher also complains that, in any case, this commission is too high, especially if he has his own special agent in the same territory to whom he must also pay fifteen per cent. This thirty per cent and the two per cent discount for cash in fifteen days which is NATIONAL ADVERTISING 26 261 likely to be allowed, gives the publisher only sixty-eight cents out of each dollar which the foreign advertiser pays. Publishers have recently made an effort to alter this anomalous position by ceasing to pay commission to agencies and letting their clients pay the whole compensation. They now commonly pay a fee in addition to the commission which the publisher allows. However, as there is no immediate prospect of the general adoption of this change, it is probably wise for the local publisher to fall in with the present practice. There will be cases in which the double commission is too much to pay for the business, but a uniform rule must be adhered to and there should be active coo*iperation between agency and publisher. So it is best to follow established practice heartily and insure friendly relations. This is a case in which useless protest is expensive. What is Local and What is Foreign Advertising?.-It is very common for publishers to charge a higher rate for national advertising than for local advertising. Three reasons for this are first, that the local advertisers use larger space and use it more regularly; second, the national advertiser can utilize the whole circulation of a paper while the local advertiser gets no benefit from that part of the circulation outside of the trading area of the town; and third, a commission of fifteen per cent or perhaps thirty per cent must be paid to agencies and agents for the "foreign" or national business. A vexing question now arises. Some national advertisers, especially automobile manufacturers, have their 262 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER advertisements inserted by their local agents, thereby getting the local rate. This deprives the advertising agencies of the business or at least of the commissions which would come from the publishers if the business were sent in by the agency. How is the problem to be met? Some papers are trying to adopt such rules as will more clearly define foreign advertising. Others are adopting uniform rates for foreign and local space. Others are so adjusting their rates that the amount received for foreign business, after paying the fifteen per cent commissions to agencies, shall be only equal to that received from local advertisers. There is evidently much still to be done in the direction of standardizing the whole matter of dealing with foreign advertisers and advertising agencies. CHAPTERXV CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING During the past few years there has been a new realization of the utility and importance of classified advertising, and a rapid increase of this class of business. But this growth is confined to a comparatively small number of papers. Figures were recently compiled showing that 154 daily newspapers in 88 cities with a total population of 28,053,610 carried 394,099,452 agate lines of classified advertising in 1921. If we may guess that this advertising was sold for an average of twenty cents per line, the want ads in these 154 papers brought in a revenue of $78,819,890 i that year. A notable thing, however, is the very uneven development of classified advertising in different cities. While the average paper sold 14.04 lines per capita yearly, papers in Burlington, Iowa, Canton, Ohio and Portland, Oregon sold twenty lines, two papers in Topeka, Kansas carried 27 and 37 lines respectively, and one in San Diego, California, 40 lines. Very many papers reported less than one line per capita. This would appear to indicate that even in cities the size of Kansas City and upwards, not all the papers are yet alive to the 'importance of classified advertising. It is the opinion of men who are close to the subject that the development is still in its infancy and that 263 264 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER even those papers which have gone farthest have much further growth to anticipate. There are three distinct advantages to be gained through the development of the classified department. First, it adds to the interest of the paper for readers; second, it performs a large service in the aggregate for both advertiser and reader of classified advertising; third, it yields a good revenue. These three incentives should certainly be sufficient to impel every progressive publisher to develop this important feature of his paper. Scope of Classified Advertising.--The function of classified advertising is not identical with that of merchandising advertising as carried on in display space. The want advertisement is especially used to locate and induce a single person or a few people to buy some particular article, to loan a particular sum of money, to fill or furnish a position, to rent a house. It is used to find rather than to stimulate the person to whom it is addressed. Characteristically, indeed, a want advertisement states a single want which some one person can fill. With the growing complexity of living, such wants of individuals, together with the means of satisfying them, are continually increasing in number and importance. On the other hand, people personally know a smaller proportion of their neighbors with whom an interchange of goods would be advantageous. It is this general situation which calls for the growth of classified. Then the almost spectacular results which often follow the insertion of a want ad tends to stimu CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING 265 late popular interest and faith in this kind of advertising. Publishers are only beginning to realize the breadth and scope of the classified department. The Milwaukee Journal gives a list of three hundred vocations, the followers of which could be dealt with through want ads. It classifies its ads under eighty-one headings.1 Classified in this country has largely been used in connection with buying, selling, lending, hiring, renting and other operations involving money transactions. It is quite probable that in the future we are to see many noncommercial uses of classified. Personals of the right sort are likely to grow here as they have in England. For instance, a gentleman of such and such attainments and tastes wishes to find a congenial man to walk in the country with him on Saturday afternoons. A soldier wants a correspondent. A Shakespeare lover would like to form a group to read plays. It should be made possible for a thousand and one desires of this sort to find satisfaction through the channel of classified advertising. Here, if anywhere, is a means for establishing practical intercommunication between town dwellers. Promotion of Classified.- Among the things which contribute to the upbuilding of the classified department are: (1) the stimulation of useful and reliable advertising; (2) the use of interesting and comprehensive copy; (3) good arrangement under appropriate headings; (4) the cultivation of reader interest and 'See Appendix IL 266 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER confidence; (5) the education and attraction of both readers and advertisers. As to character of copy, the publisher can make his influence felt more quickly here than in display advertising. He is in a position to exert a large constructive influence over the preparation of copy, for many advertisers will consult the paper's representative about writing advertisements. He can refuse to accept those which are misleading. Improvement of copy as to honesty and informativeness has greatly stimulated the growth of classified in recent years. Much depends upon headings and attractive arrangement. It is sometimes hard to tell the exact difference between a dry and repellent looking page of classified and an inviting and interesting one, but it is vital for the publisher to find how to produce the latter. In the case of large papers, headings of groups are apt to be arranged alphabetically with advertisements also placed alphabetically in each group. With a small paper or newly started department, headings are likely to be fewer and more general. A "For Rent" classification is likely to do duty for all sorts of real estate-houses, stores, apartments and what not. Many papers exclude display type entirely from the classified columns on the ground that it is confusing, distracting and unsightly. Others, while willing to accept it, charge for it at a higher rate. Some permit only large and small caps of the type regularly used in the department. On the other hand, a few papers favor display type on the ground that it makes a page look less forbidding and increases the earnings of the CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING 267 department. But quite generally the aim is to do whatever will contribute to accessibility and to refrain from doing anything that will defeat this end. In the matter of location of the department, the opinion is quite general that it makes little difference where in the paper it is, so long as it is kept in the same position all the time. Educating the Reader.-When the publisher has succeeded in inspiring good advertisements and these are well set up, arranged and printed, the next thing he must do is to educate readers to read and respond to them. We realize how great is the necessity for this if we remember to what an extent all of us are creatures of habit. Of two people with equal intelligence and initiative, one will constantly take advantage of want advertising, while the other will never look at it. The reader can be educated in this direction through advertising in the paper's own columns.2 By following up the results of some of the advertisements, many of which will be quick and satisfactory, convincing copy points may readily be obtained. "Want ad" experiences also make good material for news stories which, in turn, serve as publicity for the classified department. The Brooklyn Eagle pays employees for referring ads STh e C l a s s i fi e d A d v e r t i s i n g M a n a g e r o f t h e C h i c a g o D a i l y N e w s in Editor and Publisher likens the classified department of a paper to a great department store exhibiting a million dollars' worth of real estate, a hundred thousand dollars' worth of automobiles, thousands of dollars' worth of jobs, and so on, and maintains that there are the same reasons for advertising that great market that there are for advertising the department store. He says, "The thing that has made the department store great will make the newspaper great-good goods properly advertised. " Advertising will especially help with the regular users of classified. 268 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER with news value to the editorial department. The London Times has an item every morning quoting from a few "smalls," as they are called there, the important, novel or interesting. This propaganda for the purpose of getting readers to use classified advertising should be systematic and persistent. In addition to educating readers to notice and heed want advertising, it is all the time stimulating them to insert advertisements in further effort to supply their own wants. Selling the Want Ad.-When it comes to inducing people to insert want advertisements, there is again presented the straight selling problem. Attention must be attracted, interest awakened, desire stimulated, confidence created and the will' moved to action. Two classes of people use classified space: men whose business it is to sell used articles, like automobiles, etc., real estate people, loan brokers and numerous others who employ such advertising regularly in their business; and second, transient advertisers. Both classes may be treated in the same way in starting the work; both are reached by the advertising of classified in display space in the columns of the paper. Classified space may be sold to business users of the department by the same methods as are employed to sell them display space as discussed elsewhere. The transient advertiser, however, cannot usually be approached directly. He must be given repeated evidence, through the use of display advertising and text matter, that, on the average, judicious classified advertising brings excellent results. Of this, numerous illus CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING 269 trations can be given, some of which are very striking, and it is not difficult to obtain ample data of a character to make interesting and convincing advertising of this sort.3 It seems wise to point out that a want ad cannot do the impossible and that there is always risk of failure in some classes of want advertising. If, for instance, one advertises to obtain a harp of a certain size and type and there is nothing of the sort in the city, no returns will come. What is claimed for want advertising is that it will accomplish the possible in so large a proportion of cases as to be, on the average, very profitable. It is advantageous to have a selling story of classified in pamphlet form. This should be as complete as pos"s Probably most customers will use a few large ads, and many smaller ones. Some papers make a point of using page spaces part of the time. Very striking pages of this sort have been issued by the Milwaukee Journal. One showed a cut of numerous classified headings put together in an orderly disorder, the picture extending across the page and six inches deep. The lower two thirds had index of headings in the center and full-face, twocolumn matter on either side. Another stressed the far-reaching results of want ads and the odd things sold. A segment of the earth extended across the top of the page, showing Milwaukee in the center and Los Angeles and Boston on either side. Among the articles sold through its columns had been a lion cub, "Holmes Directory of London, Paris and Berlin" and a rare collection of pipes. The page also pictured an oboe player who had been found to fill a vacancy after other means had failed. Another page featured "Seven Wonders of Service," picturing scenes representing telephone, telegraph, mail, steam, electricity, gasoline and, in the center, the classified section of the Journal. Still another pictured the city of Chicago with wires to twentyone telephones in the Journal office and stressed the ease of inserting want ads. Another pictured scenes of the city typical of wealth and pointed out how many millions of dollars' worth of property were advertised in and sold through its classified columns, estimating the contribution of the receipts toward the city's business. 270 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER sible and may contain arguments, testimonials, instances of success and illustrative experiences,' together with various kinds of information and suggestions for advertising copy, circulars, "envelope stuffers," etc. Circulars will be needed by salesmen for mail solicitation, booklets to help advertisers write copy and various other pieces of publicity matter. Rates.- The question of rates for classified advertising is one which is constantly open to debate. The cost to sell and handle it is a higher percentage of the receipts than in the case of display. On the other hand, the extra trouble and expense connected with running the department is in large measure offset by its greater interest and attraction for readers, especially in the case of papers which have made no effort to improve the quality of their display advertising. The scale of rates for classified is a subject which deserves much thought. Different considerations in" 1'An analysis of its returns from classified advertising have revealed some interesting data to the E. A. Strout Farm Agency of New York City. They learned for example that as a result of the more than a million lines of classified used during 1921 they sold an acre of land for every inch of space purchased. "Twenty-one years ago the present head of the business sat in the woodshed of his father's Maine farm and laboriously hammered out a classified ad on a rickety old Calligraph typewriter. The ad was inserted, pulled returns and thus was founded the institution which in 1921 used 500 publications regularly and closed more than 5,000 sales of improved farms representing a volume of $20,000,000, a gain of 20 per cent over 1920, its best previous year. " 'In the face of the development of display copy and big space,' says the president, 'We have adhered to our policy of using the classified "For Sale" columns. To this fact we attribute our steady growth. Our advertising contracts for 1922 will show material increases. The possibilities of classified advertising appear to have been overlooked in connection with many businesses which would greatly profit by it.' " (Editor and Publisher.) CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING 271 fluence different publishers in fixing rates. The ability of the advertiser to pay is one of these considerations. Thus the rates for "Positions Wanted" and "Help Wanted" are often less than half those for "Financial" or "Business Opportunities"; "Rooms to Let" is usually lower than "Real Estate for Sale" and so on. Again, some classifications are encouraged by a low rate as they are supposed to be attractive to readers. Frequently a paper comes to have a reputation for a certain class of adlets. On the other hand, high prices are sometimes made to discourage certain advertising. The London Times5 makes a very high rate per line on obituary because it does not wish the large volume of gloomy reading matter that would come to so great a paper if a low rate were charged. The Times also makes a high rate for its "Personal" column. One reason for this is the expense and labor of censorship involved in keeping the department from being used for immoral purposes. It is common to make a lower rate on contract, either to use space regularly or to use a large quantity within a given period. The discount ranges from twenty to thirty-three per cent. The contract rate is generally slightly below the six or seven insertion rate. If display type is allowed in classified, it is common to charge fifteen to twenty-five per cent extra per agate line of space.6 "B In Appendix II, are given the classified rates for the London Times (circulation around 100,000) and the New York Times (circulation, week days 300,000, Sundays 500,000). The former paper is interesting as showing a wide range of difference in rate as compared with the latter. 6 See Appendix II. 272 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER Cash and Credit.- There is a difference of opinion as to whether classified should be charged on the books. It is usual to open accounts with the regular business users of classified and there seems to be no reason why this should not be done if care is taken and a black list maintained. Another question is as to ads taken by telephone. It is not uncommon to send bills for these, if the names are found in the telephone book. A new paper or newly started department may adopt credit to make it easier to get volume at the outset. Some papers have found that by sending bill and one call of collector, ninety-nine per cent can be collected. Salesmen and Their Compensation.-As publishers come to take the classified department more seriously and grasp its large possibilities, they tend to employ higher grade managers and salesman. Where a paper is large enough to afford it, of course the aim will be to seek a manager of sufficient caliber to take the initiative and the responsibility of pushing the business. After getting in touch with the right men or women, the next question is the basis on which compensation shall be computed. There is a wide difference in practice on different papers. Some pay only a regular salary. Perhaps more pay, in addition to a salary, some kind of commission or bonus. This excess is computed in various ways. Many papers pay, besides a small salary, a commission on all business brought in by salesmen, while others pay commission only on the excess of business above an agreed minimum. Still others pay a special bonus on certain classes of business which are hard to get. CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING 273 Many publishers believe that to figure commission on each salesman's business tends to divert, into commission accounts, voluntary business which would come in without solicitation. It seems, in some cases, to switch business from one salesman to another, or to make it difficult to transfer salesmen from one territory to another, or from one classification to another. A broader basis of compensating salesmen is that of allowing the whole classified staff to participate in a bonus commission on the total classified receipts above a fixed miniumIn.7 One classified manager has worked out a point system under which a salesman receives credit based not only upon sales, but upon the difficulty of selling a certain class of advertising and even upon calls where no sale is made. The idea of this is to recognize honest effort to some extent even when it is unsuccessful. Another plan is to give medals and prizes to those showing the best results. An advocate of this plan feels that honors are even more potent than cash to stimulate the best effort. The reader will appreciate the aim of these different plans. How these ends can best be achieved on any given paper will, of course, depend largely upon local conditions. Experience seems to demonstrate that in many cases changes in method of payment have wrought great improvement in results. It also seems obvious ' The minimum is fixed at about half the classified receipts of the previous year. This plan is followed by the Spokesman Review (Spokane, Washington). The Chicago News bases its bonus upon the percentage of the total of each classification as compared with that of the previous year. 214 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER that, even with the most loyal and industrious staff, personal recognition adds to the interest and results. Undoubtedly some sort of bonus based upon the total earnings of the paper tends to produce the most perfect teamwork and a strong spirit of permanent loyalty to the paper. So much ingenuity, imagination and enthusiasm, as well as industry, necessarily enter into the sale of classified, that to keep men tuned up to get the best results is an everpresent problem. Its successful solution de-. pends largely upon the manager and the kind of staff with which he surrounds himself. Every one connected with the department must be made to believe that he has a good thing to offer. He must have faith in classified' and in his medium. In the second place, the efforts of each worker must be fully recognized and appreciated by the manager. In some cases, managers find it profitable to give talks to their salesmen every morning. To the three classes of classified ad men-salesmen, countermen, mail and telephone men-of course different methods will apply. All of these can use good printed matter and all can report results. aC. L. Perkins, editor of the classified department of Editor and Pubilishzer and Executive Secretary of the National Assoeiation of Newspaper Classified Advertising Managers, believes that classified advertising is " the medium which yields better returns, for advertisers whose product is adapted, per dollar invested, than any known form of publicity."I The same author claims that" IIf the public which could use want-ads to advantage would use them, every paper in the United States would enlarge its want-ad section ten-fold."I He urges that " IThere is no medium but that has at its doors vast virgin fields for the sale of its classified space, fields which have very likely been developed by organs located in other cities." CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING 275 The street salesman is called upon not only to study his own business, but that of all his prospects, for much of his business will come from suggesting ideas and plans to them. The mailman has his town to sell as well as his paper. For this purpose he will need to be well equipped with circulars, testimonials, blanks, etc. Statistics may be used to show comparison with the previous year of each classification and of total linage. Ideas and Schemes.-Perhaps no other department of the paper is helped so much by ideas and schemes for getting business. While it is necessary constantly to push in regular ways, there are often side schemes which can be used to swell volume. One suggestion is to promote a house clearance sale before house-cleaning time, another to obtain from stores advertisements of special articles for Christmas presents, another, to run a book exchange column at a popular rate, perhaps permitting the advertiser to leave the book at the newspaper office. A St. Louis paper has "super want-ads" in which advertisers seek capital, business partners, high-grade men, etc. These advertisements are in the classified columns, but use larger, light-faced type and occupy four or five inches.9 Help in Writing Ads.- Papers, which have made a specialty of helping want advertisers write their advertisements, have found it very rewarding. Mistakes are avoided, fuller particulars are given, and the advertising made more interesting and useful to readers, SA prolific source of ideas is the publishers' papers. OneEditor and Publisher-has a special department dealing with classified. 276 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER more profitable to space buyers and more satisfactory to publishers. The Chicago Tribune has found that fuller particulars given in advertisements give better results and that people will read long advertisements. They have a slogan, "The more you tell the quicker you sell." The Brooklyn Eagle gets out an eight-page "Real Estate Ad-Copy Helps." Each page specifies what particulars should be given about one class of property and the Oakland Tribune"0 does a similar thing for other classifications. Regular ad writing bureaus are maintained by some large papers to give free assistance to want advertisers. It is often uphill work to get the classified department well started. Of course, the interest 'is greatest only when the department contains a large enough variety of advertisements to make finding what the reader looks for fairly probable. But when a paper once gains recognition for its classified, it has a great asset which is fairly permanent. The marked growth is to come when it is fully recognized that the want ad can deal in an adequate manner with the fundamental wants of the reader, that the department performs a distinct and valuable service, and is to the paper both a source of interest and a source of revenue. '0Se Appendix II. CHAPTER XVII NEW USES FOR ADVERTISING During the past few years there has been a growing use of paid space in newspapers to bring about ends other than the sale by the advertiser of goods and services. Through advertising we are caused to "Say it With Flowers," to "Do it Electrically," to use more milk, nuts, oranges, raisins, paint, to go to church and to give more liberally to charities. We respond to appeals which bring about radical changes in our habits of life, and perhaps even in our life work. Especially during the war we loaned, gave and did various things, incited thereto through appeals in display space or posters. What is the significance of this nonmercantile advertising and how much business does it promise the publisher? Is the new use of advertising based upon sound principles? Are all kinds of causes, institutions and movements to become vocal through advertising? What is Advertising?-In considering this question, it may be well to reexamine our conception of advertising. We are apt to think of it as exercising its function solely in connection with selling the goods of the party who buys the space. Our thought is tied up to merchandising. Let us try to get an idea of it unrelated to its accustomed use. Advertising is an instrument used by the advertiser to incite people to do some particular thing; not neces277 278 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER sarily to buy goods or services, but to do anything the advertiser desires. Thus the motive for the use of advertising may be as strong when the object to be attained is far removed from a mercantile one. Again, advertising does its work by giving information, by persuasion, and by suggestion. Its influence is cumulative. Its use necessarily carries with it to the reader the idea of appeal to do something. This is recognized by the reader, even before he reads the copy. He knows he is being sought or challenged. He may read the advertisement to stimulate or reenforce an already favorable opinion; he may read it to combat its argument, or he may not read it at all. But even if he does not, he gets the impression that the appeal is there. So the mere sight of it exerts an influence through suggestion. Psychologists tell us that to think a thing is to do it unless there are inhibiting forces sufficient to cancel the impulse which the thinking gives. In some such way as this, advertising causes people to do things. It lays hold of undifferentiated want in the reader and makes of it a definite desire or demand. This is due partly to the simple operation of mental processes set up by the specific advertisement, and partly to the fact that most advertisements are sincere and seek the well-being of the reader. At all events, experience proves that people read and act upon advertising to such a large extent that it has been found advantageous to use it not only for merchandising, but for many new purposes, a large part of which do not relate to buying and selling. The significant thing here is that advertising is an efficient instrument through NEW USES FOR ADVERTISING 279 which to win favor and favorable response in numerous fields of human activity. If, then, advertising has demonstrated its force for such purposes, it seems probable that it may be employed to advantage by numerous institutions, persons and causes. The question in many cases, if not in all, will be simply whether enough favor and favorable action can be brought about on the part of the public to justify the expense. Free Institutions.- How does this question present itself to an institution supported by taxes or by public subscription and furnishing a free service? A library, for example, is lending enough books with an annual expense of, say, $25,000, to make the expense sixteen cents per volume loaned. A doubling of the demand for books would incur some added expense for books and for attendance, but not more than, say, $5,000 all told. If through the expenditure of $2,000 for advertising, the expense per book loaned could be reduced from sixteen cents to, say, ten or twelve cents, there would be no question about the wisdom of advertising. Or take an art museum founded and maintained for the service of the community. What if, through advertising, the visitors legitimately attracted could be multiplied by three, thus reducing the cost per unit of service by more than half? Would it not appear that to fail to advertise would be needlessly to leave the plant and incidental facilities two thirds idle? The same considerations apply to churches. It has been demonstrated that through advertising the attendance at churches can be greatly increased, their bene 280 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER ficent influence spread, and the enthusiasm of numbers and fellowship added to the interest. Hospitals and charities must be sold to a busy and besieged public if contributions to meet expenses are to be readily forthcoming. Is it not probable that all such public serving institutions must take a leaf from the experience of the merchant, cease to be passive and silent, and become active and vocal through advertising? Nor is it good policy for them always to remain silent until an appeal for funds is made. It is a tactical mistake to wait until the money must be had before talking about the institution. If advertising tells what the institution is doing, how worth while it is, and thanks the people for their cooperation in the past, it will be talking to receptive readers. If, on the other hand, nothing is said about the institution until the need for money is imperative, the reader will be on the defensive, seeking in his mind ways to reduce the obligation. Advertisements like the following, in which there is no direct financial appeal, serve to keep the hospital in the public mind as a cause worthy of support: 1. SPECIALIZATION in the CARE OF THE SICK Hillside Hospital specializes in bringing relief, comfort, and cure to the sick. For this reason your dollars given here serve to the best possible advantage. Please feel that the hospital is yours, to serve you and to serve others for you. NEW USES FOR ADVERTISING 281 2. HILLSIDE HOSPITAL If you knew how much relief your dollars have brought to the sick through efficient work in the hospital, you would feel gratified. We are equipped to get the greatest service for the sick out of each dollar spent. The Hillside Hospital is your hospital and we shall be glad to have you call occasionally to learn of its work. We thank your for past gifts. THE MANAGERS We are not forgetting that all these institutions can depend upon the friendly cooiperation of the local paper and will get free all the reading space the editor can stretch his conception of news value to include. But there is, in the direct statement of the management in its own space, over its own signature, a far more effective appeal. The "community chest" movement illustrates this power of direct appeal. But for advertising, the cities which have adopted this wise and far-reaching plan might well despair of success in raising at one time the large sum required for the year's support of all charitable institutions. Wise advertising is an evidence of life. A dead thing can be talked about by the newspaper, but the live thing should be expected to speak for itself. It seems to us that the time has now come systematically and persistently to promote this noncommercial advertising as mercantile advertising has beeni promoted for some decades. 282 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER Municipal Departments.-iMlore and more those in charge of the administration of the various branches of local government are seeing that the direct, forceful, dignified and effective way of mobilizing the public is by means of straightforward communications from the head of the department to the people whose cob~peration is sought. This is true in the case of public schools," and of the health, police and fire departments. School Advertising.-The public schools have never received from local papers anything like the amount of intelligent attention which their importance and potential news value would justify. A large portion of the local population goes to school. These young people are not merely preparing for life in the schools; they are living there, and they are just as much entitled to newspaper attention as their parents. The paper which refrains from a patronizing attitude towards the news which interests young people and gives to it the same sympathetic interpretation as to the affairs of their elders, w~il enlist the interest of young and old alike. Here especially should the threefold service of the local paper be given; not only should the paper report the school doings fully and adequately in its news, and give such intelligent comment as the importance of timely questions justify: it should also seek to carry school publicity. The school should be sold to students, parents and taxpayers and regular advertising space should be used for this purpose. 'Valuable suggestions are given in School Statistics and Publicity by Alexander (Silver, Burdette, 1919); Journal of Educatiomal Researc1h, June, 1920, p. 457, " Publicity Campaigns for Better School Support. " NEW USES FOR ADVERTISING 28 283 The paper may and should act as interpreter and advocate of the schools, but there comes a time when the newspaper has done its share financially toward their promotion. Appeal of the school by its actual manage.ment should have the dignity and force of display advertising in prominent space. Publicity of this sort may be very influential. For the past two years advertising has been used in Providence, Rhode Island, to induce more young people to go to high school. In that time, the percentage of those who entered high school after graduating from grammer school, which used to be from sixty-five to seventy-five per cent, has increased until now, in the fall of 1922, it amounts to ninety-five per cent. So suggestive is it that we quote here in full the account given in a recent number of the School and Home, Education magazine of another school advertising campaign:. PUTTING~ THE SCHOOLS BEFORE THE PUBLIC Sioux City, Iowa, through the Sioux City Teachers' Club, some of its business men, and an advertising man.. ager, has carried out a plan which should be very effective everywhere. It is a means of arousing the local public to more interest and active support of teachers and their work in the public schools. What the schools can do and do now accomplish must be, spread before the people in a way that they cannot escape noticing. That is the adver-. tiser's special power. Advertisements that are true and give a clear and definite call for action, even if only action for right thinking and a helpful attitude, should be most effective. 284 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER "Building Young Sioux City's Future" was used in an oval cut at the upper left hand corner of a series of display advertisement, twenty in number, that appeared in daily newspapers of Sioux City. The advertisements were the size of a full page of this magazine, 1/4" x 10". We take pleasure in giving here the headlines of some of the advertisements in the series: PRIMARY SCHOOLS HELPFUL TO CHILD'S DAILY TRAINING "THOUGHTS INTO ACTION" WORK OF PRIMARY GRADES IS YOUR CHILD'S SCHOOLING PRACTICAL? MR. TAXPAYER-YOUR CHILD LEARNS TO THINK-In the S. C. Intermediate Schools S. C. SCHOOLS MAKE FOR BETTER CITIZENSHIP FACTS ABOUT YOUR SCHOOLS-MR. CITIZEN WHAT ARE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS? VISIT THEM! THINKING PUPILS-PRODUCTS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS ARE YOUR SCHOOLS GROWING? MR. CITIZEN-IS S. C. HIGH SCHOOL NECESSARY? AMERICANIZATION - IMPORTANT FUNCTION OF S. C. SCHOOLS As an example of the series we take pleasure in reproducing the seventh of the series, as follows: MR. TAXPAYER-YOUR CHILD LEARNS TO THINK-In the S. C. Intermediate Schools NEW USES FOR ADVERTISING 285 (Seventh of a series of advertisements published in the interest of Sioux City Schools and their teachers.) "-"Learning how to think" is a fundamental principle directing the entire system of study courses in the Sioux City Public Schools. To think clearly, to reason carefully, to solve problems logically are taught the child from his primary training at the start to his advanced training at the finish. -Though the subjects studied are varied, yet comprehensive, part of the instructors' time and direction is carefully spent in training the child in methods of mental concentration and right thinking. -Arithmetic is entirely mental work. It develops speed and accuracy in figuring problems. It fosters the habit of mental work until pencil is needed and it teaches the pupil to use the pencil to aid the head. The child soon deals with figures systematically and is soon impressed with the out-of-school need of Arithmetic ifnsolving every day problems. Working with such problems soon instills confidence in the child to solve problems arithmetically out-of-school. It gives him an idea of the vastness of the world itself. During the war, problems pertaining to it were used extensively to develop a growing interest in the nation. -The youthful mind is informed at length of the greatness of the earth through the study of Geography. It shows him that life and its development are determined by the conditions of climate and surface into which the individual is born. He learns how certain industries are regulated by climatic conditions. The child soon understands that Geography is the study of the earth and its relation to man and life. -Good reading develops the mind as quickly as does any study in the Intermediate course. Imagination is greatly stressed and the basis is laid for the child's interest in mature literature through reading "The Iliad" and "The 286 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER Cid." Fair play is shown, cautious bravery is advised, purity and honesty is forcibly set forth. General knowledge also is acquired through reading of geographical conditions, Indian traditions, man's advancement through the ages and the like. Thus, the child's brain is continuously reflecting while studying and reading. -And language cultivates better and more logical thinking. In sentence construction, in paraphrasing, in storywriting, the brain and all its component mental faculties are utilized to capacity. Correct ideals of English are formed, plots are planned and unified, observation of English rules becomes a habit and good judgment is formed in language training-all of which makes for deeper, clearer and more intelligent thinking on the part of the child. -With such methods and under such modern direction, the "Building of Young Sioux City's Future" is assuredly successful. "SIOUX CITY TEACHERS' CLUB,--Assisted by City School Administration, Supervisors, Principals' Club, High School Teachers' Club. The time will undoubtedly come when all these public serving agencies will see that one of the most rewarding things they can do is to adopt the policy of active persuasion and hospitality toward the public. (Hospitals could help to remove fear of operations in the minds of patients through advertising.) In other words, they will see that to incur all the expenses of furnishing the facilities to perform the service is not all that is required, but that a free institution as well as a commercial enterprise must show evidences of life "which are not wholly passive. There is no article of merchandise which is so good as to sell itself in such NEW USES FOR ADVERTISING 287, quantities as to bring about the most economical production. It is exactly the same with a free service. All these things must be put before the consumer in order so to attract attention, awaken interest and create desire, as to overcome the inertia of the individual and induce him to spend the time and effort needed to avail himself of the facilities offered. One health officer recently declared that since the board of health office is largely an institution for the education of the people along health lines, he would, if he could have his way, devote ninety per cent of the appropriation for his office to advertising. A treasurer of a city of 30,000 said he would have connected with the town government a regular press or publicity expert. Here is a Health Department advertisement: THE HEALTH OFFICER Your Board of Health is gratified to announce that the death rate last year in Eastham was only 10.5 per thousand of population. The best work of the Health Officer depends upon hearty coiiperation on the part of our people. Will you not see that all communicable diseases are promptly reported to me? When in doubt, report. Our Office aims not to annoy you but to help you at all times. JOHx D. STEVENs, Health Officer City Hall. The head of a town or city government who wishes to keep in close touch with the people, to make his department understood by them and to secure their coo5per 288 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER ation in getting the best results should not be dependent upon the option of the editor as to printing any particular piece of copy. Moreover, such an article should have more official prestige and influence than it does when printed as news. Cooperative Advertising.-A notable development of the past few years is the cooperative advertising, in which an association advertises to increase the total consumption of the product concerned, without necessarily naming the individual producer. Groups of producers of milk, nuts, oranges, raisins and the like, forsee a demand for their products too small to absorb the future supply. They believe the merits of their product are such that, if people were more fully aware of them, a greater consumption would result. They appeal to the consuming public through advertising and the appeal meets with such response that the demand exceeds the supply. These cooiperative campaigns and those of other commodities are new, but are rapidly becoming more numerous. The manufacturers of paints increased their joint appropriation by five-fold last year, advising readers to "Save the Surface." Public Service Advertising.-In an attempt to win the good will of the people, producing concerns and public service corporations are contributing to other than strictly mercantile advertising. To a larger and larger extent the companies are taking space in which to state their case to the public.2 There is an increasing re2 Public service companies are also using space regularly to advertise such products as gas, electricity and street-car rides, the demand for which was supposed to be practically fixed. NEW USES FOR ADVERTISING 289 gard for a straightforward message over the proper signature to produce conviction among readers, and such advertising is especially likely to be employed when a company is under fire. As a case in point, the reader may recall the strong advertising done by Borden and the Slawson-Decker milk companies during the priceof-milk agitation and during the general strike of milkwagon drivers. Steam railroad associations and trolley lines are also using space for such purposes. Political advertising, on the part of candidates and parties before election and statements by elected candidates while in office, promise to become a worth-while branch of paid newspaper service.3 When the advertising manager takes the initiative in suggesting plans, sometimes preparing copy and in all ways seeking and soliciting these lines of business as he does mercantile advertising, nonmercantile advertising will assume real importance in the local paper, and as the local paper comes to be thought of as the recognized channel of public communication, it will naturally be used by the public serving agencies for all purposes that involve any sort of appeal to the people. Church Advertising.- Church advertising is a subject of first importance to the publisher of the local Said Franz Herwig, Director of Wisconsin Public Utilities Bureau, at a joint convention of electrical and gas companies, " Every utility should set aside a certain sum each year to be used for regular once a month or once a week advertising."... "CAdvertising will increase your gas sales, your electric sales and your street ear sales and at the same time promote the wider uses of all your services." "3 The adoption of advertising by the War Department reduced the cost of recruiting men from $144 to $43.30 per man, effecting a saving in a single month of about a million and a quarter dollars. 290 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER paper. In this direction he may look to increase his revenue and greatly to extend the service of his paper. Says the Editor and Publisher in a recent editorial on this subject: Our judgment is that the development in the next ten years of church advertising with the newspaper will be as great as the development of specialty house and department store advertising has been during the past ten years-all signs point that way. As yet only a small percentage of the newspapers of the country are giving any attention to church advertising. The churches in most towns are using small space, often in the classified advertising columns, barely to give the name and address of the church, the hour of service and the name of the minister. These churches stand where local merchants stood forty years ago. But the few towns where there has been some awakening on the subject are, for the most part, getting good results and the churches are increasing their space. Mr. Herbert H. Smith, in charge of advertising for the national body of the Presbyterian Church, recently reported that thirty papers which were carrying church advertising had increased the space thus used by ninety per cent in a year. The Church's Need.-The church, like the distributor of a commodity, seeks to get people to do a thing which it is to their advantage to do. The church has the same task of selecting from the public as a whole those individuals who are responsive to its appeal, attracting their attention, awakening their interest, stimulating their desire and moving their wills. NEW USES FOR ADVERTISING 291 That churches are destined to turn to advertising is as certain as is the fact that they have something which many more people should want. The churches are exactly where thousands of manufacturers and retailers would be to-day without advertising. They occupy big plants with heavy overhead expenses, but with small output. And as a Minneapolis minister says, "'The most expensive thing about a church is an empty pew, for it costs no more to prepare a service for a houseful than a handful." If a church is furnishing a morning service and a sermon which is such as to bring the visitor back repeatedly, there is every reason to believe that it can, through advertising, so increase its attendance as to cause many more people to avail themselves of its advantages. This, besides extending its services, accordingly reduces the cost per unit of service. Purely from an economic standpoint, then, advertising is wise. Moreover, it has been repeatedly demonstrated that judicious church advertising will bring in enough people so that the contributions of newcomers will pay all the advertising expense. Missionary Service.-Of course, the great thing is to extend the service of the church to the unchurched. Over half the people in America have no church home. "There can be no doubt that a large number of those outside the direct influence of the church can be attracted to it if the right program is adopted. The tendency is for a church which is considering advertising to think of printer's ink as a panacea which can make successful the church which has not prepared 292 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER itself to deserve success. We have here repeated the story of the early mercantile advertisers who forgot that the only thing worth advertising is a thing worth buying. Like the manufacturer or the merchant, the church needs first to prepare to deliver the goods. When it has the ability and facilities to deepen, broaden, enrich and quicken the lives of men and women and is prepared to demonstrate this fact, there is no doubt about filling its pews and swelling its membership. The church advertisement opposite may be suggestive. In a number of towns, joint advertising by several churches has been successfully maintained. By this plan, half a dozen or more churches join in buying, say, half a page of space. In this is used one general message, urging people to go to church somewhere, and with it each church has small space in which to make its own special announcement. We present on page 294 one of a series of half-page advertisements used in the city of Baltimore. The bottom of the page was filled with the advertisements of individual churches. Some papers donate or sell to a group of churches, or get banks and merchants to pay for a large general advertisement in the center of the page and sell the individual churches display space around it. Selling Space to Churches.-How may church advertising be developed? Perhaps the way to begin is for a paper to print church news regularly in some one part of the paper and then to solicit advertising from the more progressive churches, either singly or under a NEW USES FOR ADVERTISING 293 Your Need of the Church and The Churches' Need of You A series of four sermons introducing the year's work at the CENTRAL BAPTIST CHURCH by Dr. JAMES MACINTOSH, Minister SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1ST, 11 A.M. SUBJECT: SENSE OF GOD BUILDS BIG MEN Why is it that large men and women do not develop without that faith in a world order which is implied in a belief in God,? Sunday, October 8th, I1 A. M. WORSHIP CAUSES GROWTH We become like what we love. We are what we think. Sunday, October 15th, 11 A.M. NOT "I" BUT "WE" The consciousness of the solidarity of society the first step to growth. The great problem of living together on its individual and social sides. Sunday, October 22d, I1 A. M. THE CHURCH NEEDS YOU God, worship, cooiperation, mutuality. The great adventure of living, while letting others live. joint advertising plan. The advertising manager will do well in either case to lend a hand in the prepara WHY GO TO CHURCH Are There Valid and Sound Reasons Why Every Man Should Go To Church? There may ntot be as may reasons for going to church as thsere are chiurcebs, Not There are as many reasons for coming to Church as there are eiary ehure is. a Citadel of Truth, a Sanctuary of Strength and a Militant Force. for neglected children, overworked girls, ill-paid men, unjust laws and GOING IN TO SERVICE! Righteousneass. evil institutions in our City. There COIG UTFRS VCE partly responoible) Has he not taken the unpursfied hearts, tem pte d na. - eayand sunmanly esufte? Itis ineanier to lures, cruel enmities, benighted ~2aI - ~ stand aside and condemns than to counter- consciences and sorrow-stricken ti.)act and overcome, lives n Ba!tssnore,* Oo~Lantoe You say you will not be `wel- thee -CnY~nndhewhene~e ~ i j *j' m sot~ coe.Do oubelev thsChrst at home and no longer en exide or an egotist. Ttib _LI \nc: THESOUS cme DoXoubelev ths? hrst rommor tan ne tyes will hear 0-r S 5rNC__ ddo wait to be welconme. He the Goape! of SocialK1J'ictot and the rnrc- ToCMA4 cTAHIG age of a Liheral Christ. if you doubt thin. ToVILSy I KPOLEG F syur example anid your chal- come often enough to jodge with knowl- EVEgRosIiti o~sft eg.But you WILL be we' - TOedg&BS11 iI MLACIonto Many of our minriatera tomorrow wint -cm.YOUR PLACE is waiting he making the eanse plea, in the name of M_____R9 I- to be filled. YOUR WORK is Christ, for Social and Industrial Justice that j 4 ^0i w&aiing to be done,. tire, who, evenwhile Cogungaainst-Sco e to ~lolch hasso manyreason for ~ cialinsm, says. run gis o Aman haTsmnyraosao ong:6 arrotw distibutone of capital aownership t hrhas he has temptations to he over- is wrong anod threatensth stailbty of the ahale sysc ome or strength to give; doubts to he tom Tha t he maoony oft hr oogo-esrne-s,hhostd. solved or faith to he contributed, passions inacounotry as rich as America possesseso inomeeto be conquered or character to ha offered. baigrorcL ee oaerlri h of production, is a groc, eknonsly. Itis notnra l Are yen seeking Christ outaide? Then and it cnenot be pertoneont. No nacion tan enodute -seek H-im also in His Father's House. Are aes n ation predominantly of hiend mee Until the yous- finding God outside? Then kring Hi marnety ot thr wager-eanerse become onorms at least in part wit you tool helh whcAhyrek hesse wih o t hl those inside, A you a of prioate capista oill' remano essentiallyaoctcbleLIl.Aral? Then he liberal enough to give the Churcs a chance to help you, and yosurself Daniel Webste once said-chat he went to church "not one aotatemman, but as a mao a chance to help the Church. and a sinner." Let every man apply this truth sod ace what follows. L*REV. JOHN A. RYAN, D. D., of St. Paul, Minn., who will speak at Hlol~lidayTO RF W IS 'OT CiU IaD Ys Street Theater tomorrow efternoost ad 3 O'clock. under the auspices ofTh CAN THlE CH-URCHES COUNT ON YOU? CowuicreLeaguecof Is oat 5.5 IA JUSTICE I NEW USES FOR ADVERTISING 29 295 tion of copy. There may be advantage in adopting a style of typography for church advertising somewhat different from that of mercantile advertising. Perhaps fewer faces would be used and a lighter, smoother -appearance effected. Any publisher who seeks to promote church advertisin should study the matter in books dealing with the subject.' The church department should occupy a portion in the last form to go to press, and need not necessarily be on an outside page, for people interested in the news of the churches will readily turn to the department. On the same page might appear announcements of all meetings of whatever character and perhaps, i small towns, of entertainments as well. Of course, the attention to be given to the church would depend somewhat upon how large a place church activities fill in the lives of the people. This differs in different towns, but undoubtedly it is a part of the duty and privilege of the local publisher to sell the churches of his town to the people. There is a wide difference in towns as to the spirit of the churches and the breadth of their work; but in many towns and perhaps in most, the churches include the best people in the town, and it is the people of the church who have faith in the town and sufficient enterprise to bring things to pass. "Among the recent books on church advertising are: Ashley, W. B. (compiler), Church Advertiser (Lippincott). Case, Handbook on Church Advertising (Abingdon Press). Smith, Church and Sunday School PuONiity (Westminster Press). Elliott, How to Advertise the Church (Doran). McGarroh, Practical Interchurch Methods (Revell), Chapters x3'11ixviiis 296 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER Roger W. Babson has recently brought this out very strikingly.' He finds that out of a large number of captains of industry canvassed, an overwhelming proportion are church people. Perhaps this is due to the fact that faith is a large element in enterprise as well as in religion. In the matter of printing church news in a community in which church activities mean much to the people, it is a good plan to give each week brief notes of a number of sermons. These might range in length from one to five or six sticks. It is greatly to the editor's advantage if he can find some person in each church who has a nose for news and who will volunteer to furnish him with church gossip and the announcements of church societies. Even if this reporter does not write the matter himself, but merely gives his points into the office, the arrangement is a desirable one. A publisher may have some difficulty in deciding -what kinds of church matter should be charged for as advertising and what should be printed free as news. Some newspapers make the fixed rule of charging for announcements of all meetings at which an admission fee is asked and of printing all others free. This may or may not always work out satisfactorily, for although the publisher is of necessity in a large measure an altruist, there is a limit to the extent to which he can lend his columns without charge to the promotion of good causes. IBabson, Roger, Foundationzs of Prosperity (Revell). PART IV THE PUBLISHER AND HIS FIELD I CHAPTER XVIII NOTES ON SELECTING A FIELD The profits and the property value of a paper are strictly limited by the purchasing power of the people reached. No matter how good a paper is or how thoroughly it is developed, its revenue cannot possibly exceed a small percentage of the living expenses of its readers. All a publisher has to sell from which a profit may be derived, is a vehicle of communication with a list of buyers; how desirable it is for marketers of products to reach that list will measure the upper limit of his income. The selection for tilling of a rich field means as much to the publisher as it does to the farmer. Economic Considerations.-How may a field be sized up? First there are three fundamental questions to be considered. How much essential newspaper service is to be performed in the field? How well able are consumers to pay for it? And what are the advantages and disadvantages incident to performing the service? The surveyor of a prospective field will inquire about the population of the town and the territory and learn whether it is growing or diminishing and why. But even more carefully will he look into the financial status of the people. This he will estimate from such indications as the value of farm property and crops and that of industrial property and output. He will inquire 299 300 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER into the assessed value of homes and he will ascertain how many of them are owned by their occupants. He will make every effort through banks, savings institutions, building and loan associations, to learn the income of the people and how evenly it is distributed. He will especially wish to estimate the extent to which the people buy such refinements and luxuries as automobiles, musical instruments, kitchen equipment and the other numerous advertisable articles beyond the bare necessities of life. Evidences of Intelligence and Enterprise.-He will learn the local situation with regard to improved highways, railroads and other transportation facilities. He will examine the stores and churches as community assets, and search for evidences of efficiency and the modern spirit in the local government and of enterprise in the town as a whole. Having satisfied himself as to the fundamental question of purchasing power and learned what he can about incidentals, he will next inquire into the intelligence and responsiveness of the people, in order to learn how susceptible they are to the influence of the printed word. How many read English? What is their attitude toward schools, libraries and newspapers? How hospitable are they likely to be toward the right kind of local paper? Trade.--Next arise questions of trading facilities and habits of buying. How are the town and outlying territory situated as to competing towns? Is there a large town near by to which many of the people in this territory go to trade? Can this trade be won back to the SELECTING A FIELD 301 home town? Or, if not, can the advertisements of the stores where the people do go to trade in neighboring towns be secured and held, so that the retail advertising in the paper will be as large as the purchasing power of its readers and the paper's influence with them would justify? Or do the papers in the larger town, where the people go to trade, cover the field under survey so thoroughly as to be more economical than the local paper? In other words, would a paper published here be definitely deprived of the advertising incident to much of the trade of its readers? Local Merchants.- Are the local merchants making the most of their natural advantages or could the local trade be materially increased? Are they educated up to the advertising method of merchandising? If merchants are wholly old-fashioned and unenlightened, it will take time to develop the advertising idea. Probably some of the dealers are too fixed in the old ruts to take on the modern methods. These conditions make a slower and more uncertain venture. A survey may well include a call upon local merchants, at least the more prominent ones, for it is a great gain if the merchants will meet the publisher part way. Many other questions will suggest themselves to the prospecting publisher, including those which have to do with the town as a good place in which to live. It is not to be assumed that perfectly ideal conditions can be found, but attractive fields are numerous and the choice is of vital importance. At all events, it must be remembered that a considerable purchasing power of the people and a fair measure of responsive 302 THE COMMUNITY N~EWSPAPER ness to the printed word are absolutely necessary to a profitable property. With these essentials, a good prop. erty can be developed, but with incidental handicaps the development will take more time and therefore cost more money and effort, CHAPTER XIX POINTS IN POLICY AND MANAGEMENT In general, local publishers have the reputation of being poor business men. This may in part be due to the fact that they have often been recruited from the ranks of those who could only write and print, and in part to the distracting nature of the business. The local newspaper man is perpetually called upon to think of, talk over and write about the business of the community. He must get his material ready by press day. The multitude of his duties allows him scant time to think of his own business. But, except in the smallest places, this will not in the future be tolerated. The greater demands upon the local paper and the high cost of producing it make it imperative that every unit of expense count toward service and income. The paper of the past has been passive, the paper of the future must be active and aggressive. It must not only fill the higher demands made upon it, but go forward, create new demands and fill them. It must sell its product to make a satisfactory profit. The pullisher must be a good producer and a good salesman. Indeed, local publishing may be said to combine three types of work: the profession of editing-which calls for high social ideals and the best grade of ability; the business of manufacturing the paper, which calls for 303 304: THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER technical skill; and the business of marketing the product. Of these the last is most important from an economic standpoint. The local publisher must have vision and the courage to venture something. He must, in many cases, sell at a price where only a large output will bring profit, and he must have the breadth of view and the resolution to adopt the farseeing policy and carry it through. Need of Freedom from Details..-There is perhaps no other business which offers so much temptation to spend time and strength on small things as does local publishing. But since success comes from constructive work in the larger matters, it is imperative for the publisher so to arrange his work that at least part of his time may be devoted to the broader questions of management. By making a schedule of things to be taken care of in the order of their importance and resolutely omitting minor matters if necessary, he can do much to accomplish this end. Self-management to avoid drifting into the easy or agreeable things to the neglect of others more important is very needful for the newspaper man. Budget.--.Besides budgeting his time, the publisher should budget his earnings and expenses so as to be able, to forget details for a part of the time and be free from nagging annoyances when he needs his time for constructive work. The publishing business consists essentially of turning ideas into service, and service into dollars. In this connection he should not forget that rules and rates, strictly adhered to, save an enormous amount of time and bother. Such regulations econo-o POLICY AND MANAGEMENT 305 mize in the office much as our habits do in life. They enable us to get many right things done without conscious effort. One great source of waste in management is the habit of making decisions repeatedly because of forgetting former decisions. To write out plans and the reasons for them is to gain time and stability. Cost Finding.-Another factor which makes for efficiency is a suitable cost finding system. This should include such records, data and results as will facilitate management and avoid uncomfortable surprises. A record of actual expense will often cause one to omit some costly operations which have been gone through from habit but which do not pay. Of course, the system must not be too intricate, but certain factors of cost are exceedingly useful when contemplating changes or extensions. The Printing Office.- A plant which will produce good work, turn out the paper promptly and economically, is a prime requisite. It gives a publisher or editor a sense of readiness and power which is greatly to be desired. But the publishing of a local paper is not, as some writers have stated, primarily a manufacturing business. It is more nearly a combination of the profession of editing and the business of selling the product. The responsible manager cannot afford to have his mind absorbed in the mechanical production of his paper. The most satisfactory situation is that in which the director of the paper can feel so well assured that the printing department will do its work that he can forget it. In the case of industrial papers, ,306 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER which can dispense with a printing office, it is often said that the paper which has no plant is likely to be more successful than the one which has. The publisher not large enough to have a responsible manager in charge of his printing will do well to forget that he is a printer for as much of the time as possible. The cares and distractions of a job office are very frequently responsible for a weak, poor issue of the paper or for a big hole in the advertising receipts. Printing distractions, like many other cares, often cause the publisher to forget that his paper will cost about the same to set up and print, whether it is good editorially or not. It is the business above a certain minimum which counts toward profits, and the publisher must guard against giving to mechanical production, time and strength which would yield far more toward profit if devoted to other matters. It has been found economical in some towns to print competing papers on the same press, and this should greatly reduce fixed charges. Plan for the Paper.- It is helpful to make an outline of the kind of paper it is proposed to publish and to lay down a fairly definite policy as to its spirit, scope and production. The following schedule may be suggestive: 1. News Text Personal and Gossip News and Personal Background Development, Tendencies, History Practical Utility Matter POLICY AND MANAGEMENT 307 2. Editorial and Opinion Leaders (Editorial) Paragraphs (Editorial) Who's Who Local Quotations Opinion, Correspondence 3. Advertising Mercantile Rates Merchants Banks Real Estate, etc. Miscellaneous Rates Town Government Institutions, Churches, etc. Public Service Political Foreign Rates Classified Rates 4. Out of Town Text 5. Creating a Medium Approach Intimacy Confidence Circulation The general layout policy as to contents, circulation building, sale of advertising space, at once raises many questions, most of which have been discussed in previous chapters. Type, Paper and Ink.--It stands the local publisher in hand to do some figuring before deciding upon the 308 TH COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER size of type and the quality of paper and ink he will use, rather than to take these matters for granted. Especially he should guard against following the example of some paper with many times the circulation his paper can hope to secure. The paper of relatively small circulation may find it advantageous to use larger type and better paper and ink than the large circulation paper can afford. In some cases of papers up to, say, 10,000 circulation, especially weeklies, it may be found that even ten point type, book paper and high grade ink can be used to advantage. There is much in, favor of larger type. Cuts and ads show up much better with a machine finish paper and bright black ink. The local paper's heavy expense is for editorial and reportorial work and for composition, while the metropolitan paper's is for ink, paper and presswork. Moreover, the local paper is read more thoroughly and by older people who especially appreciate larger and clearer print. How Large a Paper?-- Some rough idea of the amount of advertising to be secured in a given territory may be obtained by comparing papers in similar fields. It is also possible to arrive at this by estimating the total trade in a town and the percentage on gross sales which can be expected in advertising. This amount divided by the, average rate per inch will give some notion of the number of columns of advertising 'Likely to be sold. If the publisher adds to this a guess for national and classified and an estimate for news and editorial, he will have some idea of the size of paper with which he ought to start. POLICY AND MANAGEMENT 309 Circulation Work before Publishing.-The publisher who starts a new paper may find it advantageous to get out an advance sample to be used in soliciting. Indeed, with this he may be able to work up a considerable list of subscribers before the expense of regular publication is incurred. On the basis of this circulation he may get second-class entry at the post office and possibly advertising at a low rate. Or the advertising may be run free on condition that it is to be paid for from a definite future date when time enough has been given to get a fair subscription list. Also valuable work can be done in advance in collecting data, stocking the morgue, etc. Buying a Paper.--In case it is possible to acquire a paper already going, this preliminary work may be avoided. Often a paper with good reputation and fair circulation, but with little advertising, can be had at an attractive price, and it is certainly better to buy than to start a paper if one is to be had at a fair figure. It is usually more profitable to buy a paper not making money. In any event, whether starting new or developing an existing paper, careful inquiry is to be made as to whether there is really a vacancy for the paper, whether there is a need for newspaper service which is not being met or in the way of being met. Capital Required.--It is no longer possible to start a paper in a good field with no capital. A new paper should probably have in hand enough money to meet all the expenses for the first year, besides paying for its plant. It is hardly desirable to look for any adver 310 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER tising earnings in the first few issues. With advertising sold on the basis of circulation, as it is to-day, the first issues of a weekly with no subscribers cannot expect advertising receipts even to cover the cost of setting up the ads. The greater the available capital, the more quickly, as well as the more substantially, can a paper be established. We have said that the newspaper business is largely turning ideas into money. The publishers' papers are prolific sources of suggestion and should be watched. There are also a number of books, the reading of which will reward any progressive publisher. Local newspaper publishing is a many-sided business and the men are not numerous who are equally well qualified for all parts of the work. It is often a happy arrangement for two men to join forces, one taking the editorial, the other the business side of the undertaking. CHAPTER XX THE SUBURBAN PAPER'S PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES The suburban local paper has problems of its own. The conditions to be met are unlike those of provincial town or small city. Disadvantages.- These differences are due to the fact that the suburb is composed largely of people who feel that their newspaper service is already performed by the city daily. On his side, the city publisher regards the suburbs of commuters as within the metropolitan territory which he is to cover only less intensively than he covers the big city proper. The suburban resident doing business in the city reads the metropolitan paper on his way to business in the morning in order to get the world news and to keep in touch with the laws and doings in the city and state in which his business is conducted. From this paper he also gets the more important news of his own town, so that when later he comes to read the suburban paper, he finds that the keen edge of interest has been taken off the more important or sensational community happenings. But, in addition to feeding up the suburbanite on news, the big daily, and especially the evening paper, does another thing: it reaches the suburban household with the advertisements of the metropolitan stores to which perhaps the majority of women of the suburb go to buy their family supplies outside of food stuffs. 311 312 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER The local publisher finds that his town is without certamn large sources of advertising revenue. Announcements of dry goods stores, clothing, boot and shoe, department and various other stores are almost wholly absent. These and other retail shops, which in the provincial small city are large advertisers, in the suburb probably pay for space not one fourth as much. Not only are the stores in these lines in the suburbs few and small, but they either cater to the poorer class of trade not so responsive to advertising, or to a small replenishing or emergency trade of the more prosperous residents. Thus the big daily not only serves the daily news to the people who would be looked to as buyers and readers of the local paper, but also carries the advertising incident to a very large portion of what these consumers buy. There are other obstacles to the building and maintenance of a reading clientele in the suburb. One is the fact that the commuter is so much interested in the affairs of his business city that he takes less interest in the affairs of his home town than does the dweller in the isolated community. He knows a much smaller proportion of his fellow townsmen than is the case in -a normal town of like size. For these reasons he is less eager to read the home paper for its record of local activities. Advantages.-What advantages can the suburban publisher have to offset these drawbacks? In the first place, he usually has a much more populous town in which to publish without undue local competition than SUBURBAN PAPER'S PROBLEMS 313 he would have in an isolated town. Instead of meeting nearly the whole range of news needs of his readers as does the provincial paper, he serves only the local needs of many more people and serves them more intensively. And not only is his territory more thickly settled, but it has a larger purchasing power per head of the population. It may have as many as five thousand families with an average income of five thousand dollars, as against the provincial town's one or two thousand families with an average income of two thousand dollars. Superficially considered, therefore, the suburban paper has a large and rich field, comparatively free from local competition. How to Capitalize the Opportunity.-In order to perform good advertising service as a local paper, the publisher must reach a sufficiently large proportion of the people of the town. He must not only get his paper into the homes, but he must also get it read. But how may he overcome that indifference of the commuter which comes from divided interests and comparative lack of local acquaintance and of neighborly feeling? This is the crux of the suburban publisher's problem. Obviously he must study out what interests the dwellers in his town have in common. He will find that there are certain subjects in which they tend theoretically to take an interest. In many, this interest is very mild or even absent. Thus such questions as those connected with the various phases of municipal government are found to attract little notice except when there is some contest on streets, sewage disposal, water supply or other pressing local matters. Local improve 314 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER ments do not appeal except when some spasmodic interest is manifesting itself through the industry of an active few. Suburbs are not usually noted for civic spirit, The suburban dweller too often limits his attention to his own grounds and the street in front of his house. The suburb is chiefly the bedroom of the city. It is also its dining room, playground, nursery and, to,some extent, its living room. Here people come to establish homes, to bring up children, to enjoy the outof-doors and to enter into a somewhat restricted social life. From these motives the actual interests of the suburbanite may be deduced: interests which include the home and its immediate surroundings, children, education and moral conditions affecting youth, church, recreation, club and other social life. The suburban publisher who would gain and hold readers must cater almost wholly to these matters or to those which he can clearly show to be vitally related to them. Cultivating Subunrban Interests.- Thus there is one large group of interests common to the residents of a 'suburban town, one which is essentially local and which involves large purchasing power. It includes such topics as real estate, home-building, house-renting, home establishment and maintenance. The citizens of the suburb may not be so vitally interested as they should be in public parks or a new city hall, but they are deeply interested in their own grounds and in their own houses, garages and automobiles. With the establishment and maintenance of a home, hundreds of questions arise as to how, when, SUBURBAN PAPER'S PROBLEMS 315 where, and how much, which are absorbingly interesting to the men and women who dwell in suburbs. Life in these days is complex, and people are daily becoming more accustomed to getting ideas about practical living from the printed page. The household economy papers and country life papers deal with these questions and are widely circulated and prosperous. The how-to-doit papers are splendid advertising mediums and are profitable to publishers. But the large opportunity for the working of this vein by the suburban publisher lies in the fact that these subjects are essentially local to that town. Here again it will be found that there is no great present expressed demand for their treatment in the local paper. But the publisher who is familiar with advertising history knows that modern business is largely dependent upon the development of a latent demand into an active demand and then the satisfaction of that demand. The local paper can practically become the trade paper of the suburban home. As already mentioned, the question uppermost in the minds of most men and women is how to get the most life and comfort out of a given annual expenditure. Of this broad question, every town enterprise, local improvement or household economic question is a concrete part. All these subjects are inherently interesting, though their interest is often, and perhaps usually, latent and in need of stimulation. The local editor, who finds that all the sensational and surface news of his town are given in big daily, must develop these latent interests in such a way as to make good news of 316 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER them. Whether his readers will take an interest ilnL taxes, streets, lights, water, waste disposal and all the rest, will depend very largely upon whether these subjects are handled at the right time and in the right way. It rests with the editor to sell them to his readers. Perhaps the greatest proof that the dry and obvious can be made alive and interesting is afforded by the development of selling through advertising during the past twenty-five years. What the advertisers have done is to take the dry, dull and obvious and so treat and so relate it to the reader that it throbs with interest and causes millions to buy billions of dollars' worth of goods every year. The advertising copy writer seizes upon a latent interest and stimulates it into an active interest which leads to action. The same method is possible for the local editor. Selling the Town.-Town operations, if properly conducted, represent the beneficent power of cooperation. What are the new sewer system and waterworks but the means of providing every house with facilities for appropriating that marvel of modern comfort, the plumbing plant, and this at a cost of only a fraction of the outlay necessary for a home outside the town limits? The local paper may merely call the reader's attention to the debt and taxes necessitated by these public utilities. On the other hand, it may remind him that no expenditure he makes brings him more in health and comfort than do these public utilities. So also witlh other municipal undertakings, such as the proposed park or playground, where both facts and deeper significances may be pointed out. The great thing is to keep SUBURBAN PAPER'S PROBLEMS 317~ the reader sufficiently informed on public matters so that he may feel that he has a stake in every underta~king and a sympathetic interest in its outcome. It is not an easy matter to serve up this information so that it shall be interesting and quickly grasped. Sometimes it is hard to resist the temptation to print technical matter by an expert or to give a readyý-made opinion by which not one in a hundred of the people will be informed. The thing is to keep the people near enough to the subject so that they will say "we"~ and "our", and will know that they are living in a democracy. The following news editorial may be interesting in this connection: Our New Sewer Investment Plenty of people will come forward to condemn the expenditure of $1,079,000 of the town's money for our share of the cost of the big trunk sewer. They will point out that our tax rate is already more than $30 per thousand of assessed valuation, and that our valuations are by no means small. Is it not fair and proper, however, to admit two facts: first, that there was nothing better to do, and second, that when all is said and done the town gets fully its money's worth? We have here a faultless sewer outlet for practically all time, and the cost per family of five for our present population is only $160. Or to put it another way, the man who builds or buys a $10,000 home must pay for facilities for discharge of sewage $180. Our sewer outlay is 1.8 per cent of $61,069,651, the assessed $18 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER value of the property of the town. It is easy to become pessimistic about our ever-mounting tax rate, but is it not true that we in Eastham get more for the money we pay for taxes than for any other equal expenditure? The discussion of all the questions incident to the establishment and maintenance of a home requires very much the same treatment and the same spirit and thoroughness. The discussion of different localities in town as places of residence, kinds of houses, rents, land values, prospective development and all the many things [which deserve consideration before a home is located, can be made to furnish interesting reading., General plans and cost of building are subjects of concern to both men and women. There is much that can be "written every week about household and food supplies, matter dealing with what is in the market and at what prices. The car, the garage, and the home grounds make good subject matter. The point of special interest with reference to all these subjects is that they are either purely local or partially dependent upon local conditions. The two automobile articles which follow are interesting as having a practical turn: 1. INTERESTING TO AUTOISTS It will be good news to car owners that the Western Boulevard is finally completed from two miles out on South Street to the river, a distance of thirteen miles. A road down the east bank of the stream to Johnstown is in fairly good SUBURBAN PAPER'S PROBLEMS 319, condition and the dirt road from there home is very comfortable to drive over, Thcep gadter ontemeiahuebl hasdran excep gafter an thar raein.huehl a been improved so that most cars, by getting a little momentum, take it on high. Look out for a speed trap at Hadley. 2. WHY THE CAR SKIDDED When Henry Townsend's car skidded on the Boulevard a few days ago, narrowly missing injury to its driver and passengers, a lesson was afforded to all motorists who use our new avenue in wet weather. Mr. Townsend seldom uses chains and in fact there is no imperative necessity to do so on our Belgian block, macadam or gravel roads. But with a pavement of the character of the new Boulevard, and with a surface so crowning, the case is different. When Jack Carter cut across the bow of the heavier car, the brakes were suddenly applied and the wheels slipped, turning the machine half around so that it faced in the opposite direction. All that was lacking to produce a perhaps fatal wreck was an obstruction in the surface of the road to catch the rear tire and turn the car over with great force. It is an open question whether the surface of our much-admired new highway might not have been made flatter, but the wisdom of using chains when driving on it in wet weather is not open to argument. Stories, as in this case, can be given a practical tunm and this treatment naturally adds to the value of the 320 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER paper as an advertising medium. In this case, it would be well for the auto supply advertiser to feature chains in the next issue. When the editor has gone below the surface and tapped these neglected resources, he will find that he is on ground which no out-of-town paper can touch. He will have created a reader interest of a kind peculiar to his paper, and one to which he alone can successfully eater. He will see that it is only surface news with which the metropolitan paper can interfere. Advertising Resources.-He will find that he has a kind of interest on the part of his subscribers which is of peculiar value to his advertisers. When readers read a paper for practical, helpful information and find that on which they can rely, it will be very natural for them to consult the advertising columns as to what they need to buy. A paper's value as an advertising medium depends not only upon how many readers it has, but how and why they read it. The paper read partly for its practical information places its readers in a receptive mood toward the advertiser who has helpful information to give and suggestions to make. The paper can also go far toward educating local merchants in the use of advertising copy enlightening to the reader. But where is the suburban publisher to look for advertising to take the place of the stores which are absent from his town on account of the competition of the stores in larger cities? He will seek, and to some extent get, the advertising of stores in the cities where his readers trade. A Montclair, New Jersey, weekly, for SUBURBAN PAPER'S PROBLEMS 321 example, carries large advertisements of the principal stores in Newark, a city six miles away. Although these stores can reach such suburbs as Montclair through Newark daily papers, which go into perhaps half the households, they evidently feel that advertising in the surburban weeklies, with their more thorough circulation and more intimate approach to readers, is a paying investment. The Newark stores realize that the suburban papers have special influence over people who have large purchasing power. But there is a limit to the ability of the suburban paper to attract the advertising incident to the trade of those same people, for those who go to New York to buy are reached by the New York stores only through the metropolitan press. It is quite possible, however, that when the suburban paper is developed into the intensive dynamic medium urged in this book, it may be able to look to the metropolitan merchant for advertising. Meantime the purchasing power of the people influenced by the suburban paper is so great that its advertising resources should be ample for the building of a profitable property. Let it begin by working its near field. There yet remains large development incident to such important suburban interests as real estate and homebuilding. Classified advertising should be especially cultivated in the suburban paper. Not only is classified advertising of interest to many readers as such, but a large proportion of the people in a suburb are capable of writ 322 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER i ng good want ads and thus susceptible to being edu-' cated into the want-ad habit. The English suburbs have developed the classified advertisement-"smalle" as they are called-farther than have American suburban publishers. Playing Up People.-.If fewer of the suburbanites are acquainted with one another than are the residents of a country town or small city, they are the more likely to include interesting and prominent people, and the fact that these people live in town gives them an added interest to other town dwellers. Furthermore, there are likely to be many people who are interesting by reason of following a peculiar business, or because of personal experience or achievement, about whom an occasional paragraph of pertinent matter can be written. In fact, there is an opportunity in this way to cultivate among the people of the suburb a sort of newspaper acquaintance which will be a permanent source of interest in the local paper. Such unusual items about town dwellers as the following would undoubtedly appeal to the reader of the paper: Mr. started out last evening on one of his far western trips. It may not be generally known that Mr. I as Vice-President of the IInsurance Company, comes in contact with thousands of agents all over the country. The influence of a man in such a position is comparable to that of the king of a small principality and the responsibility as great, SUBURBAN PAPER'S PROBLEMS32 323 2 Mr. is a legal handwriting expert. His is a comparatively new profession in which dramatic moments not infrequently occur. The testimony giveni may affect the disposition of estates of millions, or may even decide the issue between life and death. A large proportion of the people in a suburb are accustomed to expressing their thoughts in print. From these, interesting articles or quotations on local questions can be solicitated. Pains must, however, be taken to guard against long articles and against the chronic correspondent. In the editorial column there will be interpretation and comment along the line of the matter which we have already discussed. The editor will be wholly free to devote himself to strictly local subjects since the city papers read by his readers will have fully covered the general news. The suburban editor will be on familiar and unassailable ground only so long as he deals with local subjects. Fixing a price at which to sell the paper by the copy or by the year, and determining the advertising rates will be governed by the same principles as have already been set forth. But that may not mean that the publisher will adopt the same rates as would apply to a paper of the same revenue published in a different kind of town, CHAPTER XXI BUILDING AND VALUING A PUBLISHING PROPERTY When a man seeking to embark in the publishing "business, tries to buy a profitable and substantial paper in a good territory, he finds that the price asked for the property may be more than twice the value of the physical plant and net tangible assets. This excess is charged on a basis of what, for lack of a better term, is often called the "good will" of the business. What is "Good Will" ---It is the purpose in this chapter to inquire into the nature of "good will," to ask how it may be produced and conserved, how stable it is and how it is to be valued. When a publishing business is wisely built up, the result usually is that the going business becomes a property whose value, as generally recognized, is dependent upon factors other than the value of the tangible assets. A newspaper may be worth several times as much as its tangible assets. If a paper is in a good field, is needed, is wisely planned and properly conducted, the enhancement in the value of the property each year may well be equal to or even more than the cash profits of the business. Indeed, this is not unusually the case. To illustrate, an industrial paper founded by the writer was sold by him for $16,000. Twelve years later the buyer sold it for $400,000. The paper had 324 VALUING A PUBLISHING PROPERTY 325 made a cash profit averaging about $20,000 per year, while the property had enhanced in value during that period at the rate of $32,000 per year. The tangible assets of this property were worth only about $35,000. The writer was, for twenty years, in a position to know very intimately the value of the larger industrial periodicals in this country. He estimated that, during the ten years from 1895 to 1905, the annual enhance-. ment in the value of about fifty leading properties was more than their annual profits, although the profits were good. Thus an important part of the remuneration for the proper development of a newspaper is the value of the resulting property based upon its earning power. It is very desirable to have this fact in mind during the years of laying the foundations of a paper. When a publisher realizes that he is building a property, he will be influenced to adopt those policies which make for momentum and permanence. Let us, then, give some consideration to the elements which make for property value. Profits and Property Value.-The most important question is, how much profit does the business earn? And the next, how stable and dependable are its profits? The answer to the latter question is not usually an easy one to get. A newspaper, especially a small one, may be a mere tool in the hands of a skillful owner. He may make an attractive profit where a successor without the knack could make no profit at all. In other words, the personality, in the conduct of the business renders its earning power undeliverable to the average 326 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER buyer. Or the business methods of a paper's present owner may be tricky and leave a bad taste in the mouths of subscribers and advertisers, so that they would be unlikely to renew even though the paper were in new hands. This amounts to ill will in place of good will. Again, a portion of a paper's business may be secured through some sort of "pull" exercised by its owner, and would, therefore, automatically end were the paper to change hands. These are some of the things which may menace the future, perhaps destroying the value of the business to a new owner. But even with this risk, it is often wiser for the prospective publisher to buy a profitable paper and pay for it on the basis of its earning power than to start a new one or to buy a run-down property at the worth of its plant. A buyer of good will pays for and expects to get satisfied readers and advertisers who buy the paper or its space for its own sake and are likely to continue to do so. Elements of Stability.-What factors make for this sort of stability and constitute a foundation for further development? In the first place, there is the matter of field. How productive is it? Is there a large amount of newspaper service to be performed in the normal territory, and, if so, is there opportunity for performing it at a profit and is there the money to pay for it? What is the nature and extent of competition? Is the legitimate service already being performed by another paper or in the way of being so performed? How live are the local advertisers and how susceptible of being VALUING A PUBLISHING PROPERTY 327 educated? How advantageous is the town's, strategic position? What are its resources? Are the present earnings based upon high or low advert is ing rates? Has the paper been edited in the spirit of good faith and honesty? Is the business policy square? Is circulation well developed? What does it cost in promotion expense to get and hold circulation? Advertising? Is the rate of net profit too high a percentage of the gross business? Are prices maintained? What part, if any, do premiums and other schemes play in the business? How probable is renewal of subscriptions and aidvertising by straightforward business methods? Next, there is the matter of possible competition. if a paper is merely a superficial scheme, it is likely to prove very vulnerable to encroaching competition. If, on the other hand, it meets all the specifications of local need and enjoys the respect and confidence of its readers, it is likely to have such a hold upon them as will make it very hard to dislodge. There is likely to be a sentiment toward the tried and trusted local paper which enables it practically to defy competition. Thus good will is often the best kind of property. It insures, with fair management, a present income and a good foundation for further building. It is an asset from which depreciation need not be deducted at the annual accounting. On the contrary, with the right policy, its value should continue to grow with the growth of the business. Some of the best publishers will always buy rather than start a paper if there 'is one to be had. One reason for this tendency is that time is required to lay foundations, and the developing 328 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER power of good management is much more profitably applied to a property already fairly advanced. The largest element making for stability in a publishing property is common honesty, exhibited in its editorial and business conduct. There is no substitute for integrity and in the purchase of a property it is hardly possible to make a discount large enough to compensate for the lack of it. Valuing a Property.--If, then, the value of a paper as a going business depends upon its profits, what relation does the value bear to the profits? That it, if a paper is making, say $10,000 per year net profit over and above all expenses including a fair salary for all those who work for the paper, whether they be owners or not, what is its value? The buyer must answer two questions. What percentage of earnings on capital will satisfy him? And how stable are the earnings? If he concludes that, as to stability, the opportunities for enhancement are enough to offset any risk of falling profit, and he is content with ten per cent, he will value the going busines at $100,000. The estimate of stability is not usually so favorable as the case we here suppose. The buyer is more likely to consider that a material allowance should be made to offset the chances of profits falling with a change of ownership. So the property may sell as low as $40,000 or four times the net profit, or anywhere between $40,000 and $100,000. Plant and Tangibles.-But how does the ownership of tangible assets affect the value of a property? On this subject there is difference of opinion. When a pub VALUING A PUBLISHING PROPERTY 329 lishing property gets to a point of prosperity where 'it is valued on its earning power, we tend to omit consideration of any tangible property, the use of which, is necessary to produce the earnings which constitute the basis of value. It is an error to calculate the value of a property on its net profits and then add the value of plant, etc., since the plant is required to produce these profits. This is included in the value arrived at. If a paper is making $10,000 net, year after year, the buyer has little interest in the question of what plant the paper has. In an important sense a property with-. out a plant is of the same value as the one with a plant which makes no more profit. The only advantage of having a plant is to salvage it in case of failure to make a profit, or in the winding-up of the business. In this way a plant affords insurance against total loss. Valuing Papers Which Make No Profit.- It is difficult to arrive at the value of a paper which is showing no profit. We must begin by asking why this condition exists. It sometimes happens that a publisher who is primarily an editor starts a paper or acquires an unde. veloped one, builds up the editorial side and gets a f d.1r circulation, but is unable to develop the advertising to a point where it shows a profit. Perhaps the paper has an excellent reputation among readers. Such a property may well be valued at somewhere around what it would cost to bring a new paper up to the same point of development. This is a hard figure to get at with accuracy, but the amount of the gross business for one year is often the figure at which the property sells. This is partly on the assumption that it would cost 330 THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER about one hundred per cent to work up the circulation and advertising. Similar is the new paper too young to show a profit. Here there has been less time to earn reputation and confidence, so the property may be worth somewhat less. Another type is the paper which, through mismanagement or neglect, has run down. To this type somewhat the same principles of appraisal would apply. Many other factors enter here, among them the degree of difficulty with which it is possible to check the paper's present downward course. In all these properties not making a profit, tangible assets would receive consideration. In fact, it is not uncommon in the case of a paper which has made no,profit for many years for the good will to be thrown in with its physical plant. Thus, though no specific value is placed upon it, it may enable the seller to get somewhat more for his used plant. In taking over a young paper, say one to four years old, it is not unfair, if the field and outlook are good, to pay for the paper what has been put into it in excess of what it has earned. It is fortunate, however, when the paper to be valued has been wisely conceived, planned and developed to the point of normal profits, and especially where its policy has been prompted by the spirit of good will and services and carried out with energy and integrity. These elements make for profit and permanence. They build an institution whose earning power, if characterized by stability, renders appraisal relatively simple. APPENDICES 0 APPENDIX I ADVERTISING RATES AND RATE CARDS The National Editorial Association, in the spring of 1920, recommended the following advertising rates per inch for local weeklies: For papers of 500 or less circulation, 20 cents; 1,000 or less, 25 cents; 1,500 or 'less, 30 cents; 2,000 or less, 35 cents; 2,500 or less, 40 cents; 3,000 or less, 43 cents; 3,500 or less, 46 cents; 4,000 or less, 49 cents; 4,500 or less, 52 cents;- 5,000 or less, 55 cents. An analysis of the advertising rates of seventy-five newspapers in cities in the U~nited States between 25,000 and 30,000 circulation, made by E. E. Harris, general manager of the Richmond (Indiana) Palladium., shows the average minimum rate per inch per 1,000 paid circulation as $0.049. The following are rates of a large number of papers in the smaller-sized cities of the country: 333 334 APPENDICES ADVERTISING RATES Circu- Minimum Circu- Minimum Circu- Minimum lation 10,00 lation 10,000 lation 10,000 Lines Lines Lines 2,498.025 7,711.03 13,719.05 3,096.021 7,783.035 13,861.06 3,120.025 7,814.045 14,276.05 3,650.02 7,832.035 14,413.05 3,676.025 7,915.035 15,108.06 3,901.04 8,083.035 15,280.05 3,978.025 8,092.045 16,430.055 4,013.03 8,198.03 16,691.05 4,235.025 8,282.04 17,683.06 4,719.025 8,603.05 17,692.06 4,810.03 9,489.03 18,091.05 5,266.03 9,666.035 18,328.06 5,306.025 10,000.055 18,913.05 5,313.05 10,005.035 19,223.07 5,325.03 10,052.05 19,568.06 5,338.025 10,094.035 20,471.06 5,396.025 10,232.045 20,532.05 5,411.03 10,401.035 20,815.06 5,548.025 10,460.05 20,882.06 6,016.03 10,548.045 21,109.07 6,030.03 10,644.045 21,158.05 6,059.024 10,840.05 21,165.07 6,112.04 10,904.06 21,201.05 6,228.04 11,020.06 21,328.06 6,325.04 11,086.05 21,667.06 6,358.04 11,674.05 21,841.06 6,560.035 11,746.05 21,853.05 6,568.035 11,750.05 22,454.06 6,736.025 12,110.045 22,540.06 6,793.03 12,085.05 23,103.05 6,796.035 12,118.045 23,221.07 7,000.03 12,237.05 23,748.06 7,011.04 12,768.035 23,913.07 7,141.025 12,811.035 23,974.07 7,293.04 12,960.035 24,005.07 7,362.04 13,154.04 25,900.06 7,363.03 13,154.05 25,977.06 7,700.04 13,559.05 i,, Full position, 25 per cent extra; specified page, 25 per cent extra; classified, 5 words per line, 12 cents. ADVERTISING RATES AND CARDS 335 EXTRACTS FROM SoME TYPICAL RATE CARDS Passaic (New Jersey) Daily Herald, circulation 9,336, transient per agate line, 6 cents; 26 times 6 cents 52 times 5 cents 156 times 4~ cents 312 times 312 cents Bloomfield (New Jersey) Independent Press (weekly), circulation 2,000, transient advertising, less than 100 inches, 50 cents; 100 to 500 inches, 45 cents; 500 inches, 40 cents; classified, 1 cent per word, 25 cents minimum. Middleton (New York) Times-Press (daily), circulation 6,325, transient and political, per inch, 75 cents; 100 inches, 49 cents; 200 inches, 42 cents; 300 inches or more, 35 cents per inch; classified, 1 cent per word. Port Jervis (New York) Union (daily), circulation 2,300, 1 inch 1 time, 40 cents. 1 inch 1 month $8.25, 1 year $42.00 2 inch 1 month 12.00, 1 year 63.00 5 inch 1 month 24.00, 1 year 126.00 10 inch 1 month 44.00, 1 year 231.00 20 inch 1 month 80.00, 1 year 420.00 Massilon (Ohio) Evening Independent, circulation 7,100, transient, 3 cents per line; no time rate; 2,800 lines or more, 3 cents per line; classified, 30 words, 5 lines 1 time, 40 cents; 5 lines 2 times, 50 cents; 5 lines 1 month, $3.50. Olean (New York) Evening Times, circulation 5,306, flat per agate line, 2~ cents, 35 cents per inch; time discounts, none; space discounts, none; full position 25 per cent extra; next reading 10 per cent extra; political, per inch, 50 cents. If advertisements are to be set, additional per inch, 10 cents. Classified, first insertion 1 cent per word; succeeding insertions 1/2 cent per word. Back of card has map and circles showing zones up to twenty miles. 336 APPENDICES - - -- -~ CASH RATES REBATES ARE ACCEPTED IF PAID ALLOWED ON ADS FORWITHIN SEVEN HACKENSACK, NEWJER~EY KILLED BEFORE DAYS FRoM Class""1 Advertising Cost EXPIRATION FIRST DAT C Crd CHARGING AT THE INSERTION Line Rate for Consecutive Insertions RATEEARNED Words nes 1 Time 3 Times 6 Times WCHARGE CASH CHARGE CASH CHARGE CASH Upto18 3.33.27.81.63 1.26 1.08 19.24 4.44.36 1.08.84 1.68 1.44 25-30 5 5.45 1.35 1.05 2.10 1.80 31-36 6.54 1.62 1.26'.52 2.16 37 -42.77.63 1.9 1.47 2.94 2.52 43 -48 8.88.72 2.16 1.68 8.36 2.88 49 -54 9 -.9.81 2.43 1.89 3.78 3.24 560 1 0 i.1.90 2.70 2.10 4.20 3.60 61-66 11 1.21.99 2.97 2.31 4.62 3.96 67-72 12 1.32 1.08 3.24 2.52 5.04 4.32 - ---- - --- I ~I __ ~~ _; ----1 -----i;- --1 73-78 19-:84 13 1.43 [ 1.17 3.51 2.731 5.46 14 1.54 1.26 1 3.78 2.941 5.88 4.68 5.04 -.-- - -- -- - -~ I SIsimus Chap.e 4&- It Neot Consectlve Min1mu1 Cash $94. CLASSIFIEDAOVER11SING COST CARD) is.Rte..o l.Day Rels Applles WARLAD Th Paterson Press-Guard& WANT AD. PHONES AND PHONES 3300 The Sunday Chronicle 3300 PATERSON. NEW JERSEY 331 Line Rates for Ceoesmtl* lnsertions Cotint 4 Average Words to tWe Line I DAY 3 DAYS 4 DAYS 7 DAYS Average Words LOnes Charge Cash Charge Cash Charge Cash Charge Cash Up toI[s 3 I 45__$.39 1.08 90 $ UO j4520 IrC1 -68 19 to 24 4 00.52 141 12 192 1.90 280 224 25 to 30 75 65 160 1.50 240 2.00 350 2 0 31 to 3 6.90.78 216 180 0 240 4 20 3.36 3-1 t* 1(* 91 2 S? 210 336 80 4 90 392 43 to 49 %0__ 1.04 288 2.40 384 1 20 560 44 49to 64 4 4 136 1.17 3 24 2.70 432 130 630 504 551 to 10 150 130 360 300 480 400 700 61 to 66 11 I 143 3 S 3.30 528 40 770 1 67 10 72 12 100 100 4.33 300 4. 8 40!. Classifed Dliplay Set in Light Feae Type Only In Sizes up to 18 Point., $1.25 pe Inch t0 Each Insedion Send CASH with order, or bring or mao payments t1 office within 7 das a1er Gr1t printing of Ad. and takS advanlage 0 CASH RATES as printed in red aboee SPECIAL LONG TERM RATES FOR BUSINESS ADVERTISERS ON REQUEST APPENDIX lII CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING The Milwaukee Journal, in a page advertisement of its classified department, gives the following list of subjects which can be advertised in classified. The index is from the same paper: Household Goods Employment Employees Automobiles Real Estate Farms Timber Machinery Cord Wood Labor Investments Bonds Bureaus Stocks Candy Stores Poultry Butter Dressers Eggs Railing Cheese Livestock Tubs Rocking Horses Preserves Clothing Merchandise Tires Auto Accessories Trucks Instruments Talking Machines Legal Notices Stockings Announcements Death Notices Groceries Securities Chisels Mortgages Clown Suits Flat Buildings Building Material Apartments Rooms Roomers, Tenants Bicycles Drills 337 Wagons Liveries, Horses Cattle Stationery Engines Fixtures False Teeth Spare Parts Preparations Patents Money Stamps Old Coins Businesses Corporations Homes Hens Rugs Carpets Livery Berries Ice Gas Tanks Equipment 338 Typewriters Wardrobes Files Systems Shoes Cutlery Wiring Pianos Nuts Boats Canoes Motors Printing Cartage Teaming Cement Sheds Wagons Traps Ties Raw Furs Lard Hides Music Seeds Poems Homes Baskets Property Lost Articles Found Articles Cameras Business Chances Guns Phonographs Sporting Goods Wall Paper Paint Sheeting Buildings A-PPENDICES Loft Skins Jugs Feed Washing Machines Electric Irons Toasters Mangle Pictures Cream Sugar Frames Stores Counters Show Cases Draperies Window Trim Phonograph Records Chairs Tables Refrigerators Parrots Dogs Pets Gold Fish Birds Carpenter Work Seats Flooring Plumbing Hardware Desks Auto Parts Vehicles Honey Storage Batteries Cabinets Flowers Mugs Barns Wheels Stables Sod Taxi Service Taxi Cabs Delivery Wagons Scrap Metal Junk Ideas Vases Old Iron Antiques Earthenware Davenports Beds Saws Buttons Sofas Rings Lamps Mattresses Rocking Chairs Springs Hall. Trees Hose Belting Music Rolls Wigs Oil Grease Lubricants Logs Pottery Sheep Cows Glass Compounds Wool Ki Ins CLASSIFIED ADERISING 39 339 Help Servants Investors Dirt Blankets Specialties Castings Hay Produce Fertilizer Fans Hammers Fencing Raw Material Jewelry Watches Awnings Clocks Dishes Utensils Ponies Horses Adding Machines Bird Seed Leather Goods Lace Cutlery Crockery Piece Work China Silver Opera Glasses Tools Dress Clothes Boxes Baby Carriages Shelving Millinery Heating Furnaces Cider Vegetables Moth Balls Tractors Plows Wringers Presses Ladders Printin Paper Knitting Cutters Stools Rags Bedding Linen Telescopes Curtains Bric-a-brac Plate Glass Shops Restaurants Board Boarders Companions Rooming Houses Hotels Razors Accommodations Pails Tickets Coal Wood Lumber Lawyers Clients Fuel Attorneys Schools Yarn Colleges Novelties Personals Photographs Paintings Ranges Factories Patents Pulleys Plating Badges Bugles Cement Work Books Meals Money Land Canes Lots Bungalows Brushes Roofing Bricks Cement Work Sawdust Cinders Gravel Stones Fruit Statues Preserves Jam jelly Masonry Pickles Sewing Dresses Gowns Nuts 340 Suits Cloaks Overcoats Mops Cattle Heaters Toys Rope Sand False Hair Toilet Articles Waste Baskets Lawn Mowers Binders Book Cases Libraries Coat Hangers Canaries Andiron Jars Carpet Sweeper Shoe Trees Varnish Sod Footstools Fruit Juice Pattern Copies Tuxedos Umbrellas APPENDICES Ash Cans Tile Flower Boxes Violins Drawing Material Drums Sailboats Skates Banjos Saxophones Ledgers Cymbals Covers Auto Tops Leather Horns Piping Sewering Labels Cards Casters Storage Coops Bottles Recipes Ear Trumpets Gates Posts Furniture Polish Wire Lath Magazines Shovels Sewing Machines Charts Gauges Batteries Subscriptions Butterflies Pigs Ovens Bags Salesmen Executives Managers Stenographers Cooks Laundresses Maids Clerks Salesgirls Cashgirls Waitresses Janitors And any ol men or of the pr list. the vomen evious CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING 341 INDEX TO CLASSIFIED ADS Agents and Solicitors................ 2 Automobiles for Sale................4-5 Automobile Display................. 7 Automobiles Wanted................ 5 Auto Bodies, Tires, Supplies......... 5 Auto Repairs and Garages............ 5 Auto Trucks for Sale................ 5 Auto Trucks for Hire................ 5 Autos for Rent...................... 5 Barns, Garages, etc.................. 3 Business Opportunities.............3-4 Business Notices................... 1 Business Places for Rent............. 2 Card of Thanks..................... 1 Classified Display.................. 8 Coal and Wood..................... 3 Death Notices...................... 1 Dressmaking and Tailoring........... 4 Dogs, Birds and Pets................ 3 Educational-Instruction............ 1 Employment Agencies............... 2 Factory Sites...................... 6 Farms, Lands for Sale............... 7 Farms Wanted..................... 7 Farms for Rent..................... 7 Flats and Apartments for Rent....... 2 Floor Space for Rent............... 2 For Sale or Exchange-R. E......... 7 For Rent-Miscellaneous............ 3 For Rent or Sale.................... 3 Funeral Directors................... 1 Good Things to Eat................. 7 Help Wanted-Male................ I Help Wanted-Female.............1-2 Help-Male or Female.............. 2 Homes, Furnished, for Sale.......... 4 Homes, Furnished, for Rent.......... 2 Horses, Livestock, Vehicles........... 4 Houses for Rent.................... 2 342 APPENDICES Household Goods................... 3 In Memoriam...................... 1 Lodge Notices...................... 1 Lost and Found..................... 1 Lots and Acreage................... 6 Lumber and Building Material........ 3 Machinery and Tools................ 3 Medical............................ 4 Miscellaneous for Sale............... 3 Motorcycles and Bicycles............. 5 Money to Loan..................... 7 Money Wanted..................... 7 Monuments and Cemeteries........... 1 Moving and Storage................ 4 Musical Instruments................ 3 Offices and Desk Room for Rent...... 2 Office, Store Equipment............. 3 Personals.......................... 1 Poultry and Supplies............... 4 Real Estate Display..............8-9-10 Real Estate for Sale............... *6-7 Real Estate Miscellaneous............ 6 Real Estate Mortgages............... 7 Real Estate-Suburban............. 6 Real Estate-Out of Town........... 6 Real Estate-Wanted............... 7 Repairing and Renovating............ 4 Rooms for Rent.................... 2 Rooms With Board.................. 2 Rooms or Board Wanted............. 2 Shrubbery and Plants............... 3 Situations Wanted-Male........... 2 Situations Wanted-Female......... 2 Stocks and Bonds.................. 7 Summer Homes for Rent............. 2 Summer Resort Property............6-7 Special Notices..................... 1 Wisconsin Farms-Lands........... 7 Wanted to Buy..................... 6 Wanted to Rent..................... 3 Wanted to Buy or Rent............. 7 Wanted to Invest................... 3 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING 343 LOCAL CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING RATES OF THE CHICAGO DAILY NEWS. LOCAL CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING RATES For all classifications and conditions except as herein described: 2 lines or more, per agate line, per insertion...... $0.50 3 lines or more, 26 times consecutively, with 3 changes of copy, IF PAID FOR IN ADVANCE, per agate line, per insertion.....................45, 1,000 lines or more within one year (except Help Wanted advertising), per agate line, per insertion.42 5,000 lines or more within one year; or, 3 lines or more every day for 1 year, per agate line, per insertion................................40 For To Rent Rooms, To Rent Housekeeping Rooms, Board and Lodging, Hotels, To Rent Furnished Flats, and Situations Wanted: 2 lines or more, three times consecutively without change of copy, per agate line, per insertion.....40 For Death Notices, In Memoriam, Cards of Thanks, Birth, Marriage and Engagement Notices: 5 lines or more, per agate line, per insertion.......50 BASIS OF CHARGING The types used in classified advertisements are: Agate, Celtic, and 12, 18 and 24 point De Vinne outline. De Vinne is used for display lines only, not as body type; for the use of 12 point, an advertisement must measure 12 lines; for 18 point, 18 lines, and for 24 point, 24 lines. When classified advertisements set wholly in agate type are charged to the account of an advertiser, the price is based upon the actual number of lines used; when paid for in advance the price is based, if wholly in agate type, 844 APPENDICES upon the number of words in the advertisement, and, if wholly or partly in type larger than agate, on the number of agate lines ordered. Agate Type Twelve or less words averaging 5 letters...... 2 lines Thirteen to eighteen words................3 lines Nineteen to twenty-four words............... 4 lines Each additional six words or part thereof......1 line The words "Situation Wanted, Board Wanted, To Rent, For Sale," the address either at a street number or at The Daily News office etc., are a part of the advertisement and must be counted in determining the number of words. Advertisements received too late to classify will cost the same as when classified. MISCELLANEOUS REGULATIONS Changes of matter (when permitted) and cancellations will be made whenever desired without extra charge, provided the order is delivered at The Daily News counting room before 11 p. m. on the day preceding publication. Advertisements canceled on the day of publication will be charged for at the regular rate. It is assumed that the advertiser will not be overcritical in nonessential points. Whenever an error is made which MATERIALLY affects the value of the advertisement to the advertiser, a corrected publication will at once be made upon demand without further charge. No republication will be made on account of slight changes which do not lessen the value of the advertisement. The same rule applies to purely typographical errors, if any occur. The Chicago Daily News Co. reserves the right correctly to contract proper names, like M'Keen for McKeen, Wm. for William, etc. Notice of typographical errors must be given in time for correction before the second insertion, otherwise no repetition of publication shall be claimed or allowed. CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING 345 Advertisements (except for Help Wanted and Lost and Found) must be received at The Daily News office before 11 p. m. the day previous to publication. Help Wanted and Lost and Found advertisements must be received before 10 a. m. on the day of publication. Advertisers who wish to have answers addressed to a letter and number at The Daily News office may do so. ERRORS IN ORDERS The forwarding of an order will be construed as an acceptance of all the rates and conditions under which advertising space is at the time sold by the paper. A failure to make the order correspond in price, or otherwise, with the schedule in force will be regarded only as a clerical error, and publication will be made and charged for upon the terms of the schedule in force, without further notification. POSITION The determining of the proper head under which an advertisement shall be classified is in all cases done by The Chicago Daily News Co. No advertisement will be accepted conditioned upon any particular classification. The classification of advertisements is made in the interest of readers, and therefore of the advertiser as well, and must always be under the absolute control of the paper. An admittedly wrong classification will always entitle the advertisement to a correct classification without additional charge. Two or more advertisements are not guaranteed against location one under the other or in adjacent columns. Advertisements written to read across column rules are not accepted. SPACE LIMITATIONS The use by the advertiser of more than three lines space in any one issue of the paper is optional with The Chicago 346 APPENDICES Daily News Co. which hereby reserves the right to reduce, without further notice, the space ordered when it exceeds three lines to any size not less than three lines. The Chicago Daily News Co. reserves the right to decline any advertisement for any given issue whether offered by an advertiser with or without an advertising contract with The Chicago Daily News Co. when the space allotted to advertising in that issue has all been taken by other advertisers. The Chicago Daily News Co. reserves the right to revise or reject, at its option, any advertisement, which it deems objectionable, either in its subject matter or phraseology. MEASUREMENT The standard of measurement is agate, 14 lines to one inch, one column wide. The column width is 25 ems nonpareil, or 121/2 ems pica, which equals 2 1/12 inches. 8 columns of 305 agate lines to a page. CONTRACTS It is expressly understood and agreed: 1. That The Chicago Daily News Co. reserves the right to cancel a contract at any time upon the default by the advertiser in the payment of the monthly bills, or in the event of any persistent violation on the part of the advertiser of any of the conditions herein named, and upon such cancellation all advertising done thereunder and unpaid shall become immediately due and payable. 2. That the advertiser shall do a substantial proportionate amount of advertising under his contract during every period of thirty days within the time therein limited, and in the event of the failure of the advertiser so to do. The Chicago Daily News Co. shall have the right to cancel the contract without notice. CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING 34:7 3. That if at the end of the advertising period named, or upon a prior termination of a contract for any cause, it shall appear that the advertiser has not used advertising to the full amount ordered, the advertiser shall pay to The Chicago Daily News Co. such additional sum on each and every line of advertising so done as shall be equal to the difference between the price applicable to the amount of advertising ordered and the price applicable to the amount of advertising actually so done according to the respective advertising rates in effect on the date or dates on which the advertising is done, and upon such expiration or termination said additional sum shall become immediately due and payable. 4. That any statement rendered to the advertiser by The Chicago Daily News Co. shall be conclusive as to the correctness of the items therein set forth, unless the advertiser shall in writing call the attention of The Chicago Daily News Co. to any alleged inaccuracies in such statement within ten days from the rendering thereof, and receive from The Chicago Daily News Co. a written acknowledgment of such complaint. 5. That during the life of a contract all advertising done thereunder shall be paid for at the office of The Chicago Daily News Co. not later than the fifteenth day of the month following that in which the advertising is done. 6. That no verbal changes or modification of these conditions will be recognized. 7. That The Chicago Daily News Co. reserves the right at any time to increase the rate under a contract upon sixty days' notice to the advertiser, provided such increase shall not become effective until at least three months from date of the contract, and provided further that the advertiser may by written notice cancel the contract at the time such increase becomes effective without payment of the short term rate therein stipulated. 348 APPENDICES CLASSIFICATIONS AND RATES FOR "SMALL ADVERTISEMENTS" IN THE LONDON TIMES INDEX & SCALE OF CHARGES (A line Averages Seven Words.) The name and address to be paid for. If desired replies may be addressed to Box Numbers at "The Times" Office, E.C.4, that address to be counted as part of the advertisement. For use of Box No. and postage of replies a fee of 6d. is charged. Aerial Transport.. Agencies....... Antiques, Curios, &c. Apartments and Board Residence. Appointments Vacant...... Appointments Required...... Art Exhibitions Articles for Sale Auctions (Sales by) Births...... Business Opportunities...... Business Premises.. Charities...... Club Announcements Coals, Coke, &c. Concerts...... Contracts and Tenders...... Per line afterMinimum wards. age. Lines. s.d. s.d. 1.. 3.. 90.. 30 1..3..150..50 1..3.. 76..26 3..3.. 30..10 1.. 3.. 46..16 1..3.. 30..10 6..3.. 90..26 1..3.. 76..26 15..4.. 80..20 1..3..210..50 1.. 3..150..50 15.. 3.. 60.. 20 3..3.. 90..30 1.. 3..120..30 2.. 3.. 76.. 26 6..3.. 90..26 2..4.. 200.. 50 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING Per line afterMinimum wards. Page. Lines. s. d. s. d. Country Houses.. 15.. 3.. 60.. 20 Dancing...... 2..3.. 90..30 Deaths........ 1.. 3.. 210.. 5 0 Directors & Partners 1.. 3.. 150.. 5 0 Educational.. 2.. 3.. 46.. 16 Engagements.... 11.. 5.. 630.126 Entertainments.. 6.. 3.. 90..26 Exhibitions.. 6..3.. 90..26 Farms......14..3.. 60..20 Flats and Chambers 14..3.. 60..20 Furnished Country Houses.... 15..3.. 60..20 Furniture.... 1..3.. 76..26 Hospital Nurses, &c. 1.. 4.. 10 0.. 26 Hotels and Resorts. 2.. 4.. 80.. 20 Houses Wanted.. 15.. 3.. 60..20 In Memoriam.... 1.. 3..126..36 Investments a n d Loans....... 1.. 3.. 15 0..50 Legal Notices.... 4.. 80.. 20 Machinery and Tools 1.. 3.. 76..26 Marriages 1..3.. 210.. 50 Motor Cars 2..3.. 60..20 Nursing Homes 3..3.. 30..10 Personal....... 1.. 2..100..50 Personal Trade.. 1.. 3..300.100 Pianofortes.... 2.. 3.. 76.. 26 Pleasure Tours.. 2.. 4.. 80.. 20 Poultry and Provisions.... 1.. 3.. 76..26 Public Appointments 1.. 3.. 76.. 2 6 Publications.... 2.. 4.. 100.. 26 Road Transport.. 1.. 3.. 90.. 30 Service Notices.. 1.. 3.. 90.. 30 Situations VacantCommercial.. 1..4.. 40..10 Household.... 1..4.. 40..10 349 350 APPENDICES Minimun Page. Lines. Situations RequiredCommercial.. Chauffeurs Household Suburban Houses.. Theatres and Varieties...... Town Houses (Furnished and Unfurnished).. 3..3.. 1..2.. 3..2.. 15.. 3.. Per line afterwards. s.d. s.d. 30..10 20..10 20..10 60..20 6..3.. 90..26 14..3.. 60..20 Advertisements should be addressed to Chief Clerk, "The Times," Printing HouseSquare, London, E.C.4, 380, Oxford-street, London, W.1 ("The Times" Book Club), or to the Bureau du Times, 2, Chauss6e d'Antin, Paris, accompanied by the name and address of the actual advertiser. CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING RATES OF THE NEW YORK TIMES Count six words to an Agate line. (Minimum space two lines). Per Agate Line. Situations Wanted................. 40c Furnished Rooms and Rooms Wanted 45c Boarders and Board Wanted........ 45c Help Wanted.................... 50c Real Estate, &c.................. 55c Lost and Found.................. 55c Apartments to Let and Wanted..... 55e Country Board.................... 60e Mortgage Loans................... 65e For Sale......................... 65e Agents Wanted................... 65e Employment Agencies............. 75e Employment Agencies............. 75e Per Word. Business Opportunities (Agate Caps 20c).......................... 15e Buyers' Wants and Offerings to Buyers............................ 15c Book Exchange (Sunday).......... 12c For insertion in the Sunday edition, advertisements of schools, steamships, hotels and resorts must be received in The Times Building by noon Thursday. Real Estate and apartments display announcements and advertisements for insertion in the Editorial Section by 8 P. M. Friday. Business Opportunities by 11 A. M. Saturday. All other classified advertisements not later than 1 P. M. Saturday. Advertisements for insertion in the daily edition must be received by 5 P. M. on the day preceding insertion. 351 352, 352 APPENDICES HELPS TO "WANT" ADVERTISERmS Morton J. McDonald, classified advertising manager of the Oakland Tribune, has had the following printed on the reverse side of its want-ad blanks: Suggestions for Writing Your Advertisement To interest the reader you should answer these questions clearly: EMPLOYMENT What occupation? What wages and hours?' What experience? What are the opportunities? How many in family?7 REAL ESTATE Where is the property? How many rooms? How large is lot? How many acres? Is it under crops? What kind? What about water? Stock? Improvements?7 How near railroad? Is it bungalow, house or cottage? Has it a high basement? ]Has it garage or drive? Is it near cars? Trains? Schools? Churches? What of the view? The neighborsI Mention built-in features, sleeping porch, furnace, finish. Give price and terms. BUSINESS CARDS Kind of business? What specialty?7 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING How long establishedI Name and hours? RENTALS Where is it? Give name (of apartments). How many rooms? How about closet room? Upper or Lower? (Flat.) How about neighborhood? Schools? Shops? Cars? Is there a garage? Does rent include water? Gas? How about sun? Heat? Use of phoneI BUSINESS FOR SALE Rind of business? Give location and its good points. How long established? 'What is income? What is rent? How long is lease? What is stock value? Are there living rooms? Give price and terms. PROFESSIONAL CARDS Name and title? Specializing in? Years of practice? Office hours? FOR SALE 'What is for saleI What is condition?7 State size. Color. Give maker's name. (As of piano.) Has it any special use? Give price and terms. AUTOS FOR SALE OR WANTED Make and year? 353. 354 APPENDICES Model? Roadster? Coup6? Touring? Chummy Roadster? Mileage? Extra Equipment? Tires? Mirrors? Safety lock? Side wind shields Motometer? Clock? Wire wheels? Cash or terms LIVE STOCK What animals or fowls? What is the breed? Age? Color? Condition? Training? Give price. The following is taken from a booklet of the Brooklyn Eagle: HOUSES FOR SALE (City) Classification 84 Points to Cover for Good Copy 1-Street No., Avenue No., Section. 2-Size. 3-Kind of Floors. 4-Exterior Construction. 5-Architecture. 6-Exposure. 7-Heating. 8-Lighting. 9-Finish and Decoration. CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING 10-Plumbing. 11-Basement. 12-Roof. 13-Extras Included. 14-Grounds. 15-Garage. 16-Other Buildings. 17-Advantages of Location. 18-Transportation Facilities. 19-Reasons for Being on Market. 20-Sale Price. 21-Assessed Value. 22-Prices at which Near-by Properties Sold. 23-Rising Values. 24-Terms of Sales. 25-Date of Possession. 26-How and When to Inspect Property. 27-Advertiser. 28-Address. 29-Telephone. Inadequate Copy FLATBUSH-Semidetached, 10 rooms. $17,500. Brown & Co., 14 Court St. Full Description Copy FLATBUSH - Semidetached, ten rooms, two baths, hardwood floors throughout, stone and stucco construction, outside stone chimney, large stone fireplace in library and bedroom, hot water heat and Ruud heater; artistically decorated; lawn, terrace and shrubbery; large side and rear yard; double garage. Convenient to surface cars and subway. Owner needs money and will sacrifice for $17,500. Reasonable terms. Brown & Co., 24 Court St., Main 7808. 355 356 APPENDICES Suggested Ad Phrases for Houses for Sale or Rent I -Location and Conveniences. "75x149, runs through to Kenmore St." "no stores or trolleys within 3 blocks." "corner property 100x220, 2 blocks to trolley or subway." "10 minutes' walk to Country Club." "quiet street lined with shade trees." "Catholic church and public library within five minutes' walk." "10 minutes' walk to high and grammar schools." "restricted neighborhood, 20 minutes to shops." "8 minutes to station, 25 minutes train service." 2-Description of Exterior and Grounds. "room for two-ear garage and driveway." "pergola, sundial and tennis court." "concrete curb and walks, crushed stone driveway." "new brick house, large lawns, two-car garage." "English type house, old grape arbor and shrubbery." "stone colonial house, large lawn, oldfashioned garden." "broad piazza front and side, glass inclosed sleeping porch." "well-kept private hedge along entire street front." "stucco garage for three cars, 350 gallon gasoline tank." "timber and stucco house, facing south, kitchen garden growing." "slate roof, metal cornice, gutters and drain pipes all new." CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING "outside stone chimney, large stone fire places in library and bedroom." "bearing apple, pear and plum trees; plentiful shade, abundant shrubbery." "grapes, raspberries, currants, asparagus bed and 2 large cold frames." "terraced lawn, beautifully ornamented with shrubbery; room for tennis court." "hedged clothes yard, rustic summerhouse, ground for garden." 3-Description of Features of Interior. "plenty of closet room." "completely and comfortably furnished." "dry cement cellar, newly whitewashed." "Ruud hot water heater connected with furnace." "combination gas and electric fixtures, electric base plugs in every room." "laundry in basement, with stationary tubs and new gas stove." "four bedrooms, two baths, large square fireplace, finished attic." "two large bay windows, sleeping porch, large light rooms, tile bath and shower." "warm in winter, cool in summer, modern throughout, sun parlor and many refinements." "beamed breakfast room, porcelain tub, stand and toilet, screens, awnings and shades included." "7 rooms and bath, Dutch hall, kitchenette, steam heat, electric lights, oak floors, all window screened." "well-built house, finished in white mahogany, new gas and plumbing fixtures, combination gas and coal range, stationary tubs, marble shower." 357 APPENDIX III THE OREGON CODE OF ETHICS FOR JOURNALISM? PREAMBLE We believe in the teaching of the great ethicists that a general state of happiness and well-being is attainable throughout the world; and that this state is the chief end-in-view of society. We recognize an instinct in every good man that his utterances and his deeds should make a reasonable and continuous contribution toward this ultimate state, in the possibility of which we reiterate our belief, however remote it may now seem. We believe that men collectively should also follow the principles of practice that guide the ethical individual. For whatever purpose men are associated, we believe they should endeavor to make the reasonable SAdopted January 14, 1922, by the Oregon State Editorial Association and the Annual Oregon Newspaper Conference in Joint Session at the School of Journalism of the University of Oregon, Eugene. The Oregon Association was the first to adopt a code of ethics. "Not only arts and sciences but all actions directed by choice aim at some good." (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, I. i.) Written by Colin Dymait, Professor in the School of Journalism and Dean of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts in the University of Oregon, under authorization from the Oregon State Editorial Association. Printed by the University Press, School of Journalism, University of Oregon, Eugene, by request of the Oregon State Editorial Association. 358 THE OREGON CODE OF ETHICS 359 and continuous contribution that distinguishes the ethical man. And all the agencies and instrumentalities employed by men, singly or collectively, should be based upon the best ethical practice of the time, so that the end-in-view of society may thereby be hastened. Of all these agencies the printed word is most widely diffused and most powerful. The printed word is the single instrument of the profession we represent, and the extent to which it is shaping the thoughts and the conduct of peoples is measureless. We therefore pronounce the ethical responsibility of journalism the greatest of the professional responsibilities, and we desire to accept our responsibility, now and hereafter, to the utmost extent that is right and reasonable in our respective circumstances. Accordingly we adopt for our guidance the following code, which shall be known as the Oregon Code of Ethics for Journalism. I. SINCERITY; TRUTH The foundation of ethical journalism is sincerity. The sincere journalist will be honest alike in his purposes and in his writings. To the best of his capacity to ascertain truth, he will always be truthful. It is his attitude toward truth that distinguishes the ethical from the unethical writer. It is naturally not possible that all writing can be without error; but it can always be without deliberate error. There is no place in journalism for the dissembler; the distorter; the prevaricator; the suppressor; or the dishonest thinker. The first section of this code therefore provides that 360 APPENDICES we shall be continuously sincere in professional practice; and sincerity as journalists means, for example, that: 1. We will put accuracy above all other considerations in the written word, whether editorial, advertisement, article, or news story. 2. We will interpret accuracy not merely as thet absence of actual misstatement, but as the presence of whatever is necessary to prevent the reader from making a false deduction. 3. In an ethical attitude toward truth, we will be open at all times to conviction, for the sincere journalist, while fearless and firm, will never be stubborn; therefore we will never decline to hear and consider new evidence. 4. If new evidence forces a change of opinion, we will be as free in the acknowledgment of the new opinion as in the utterance of the old. 5. We will promote a similar attitude in others toward truth, not asking or permitting employees to write things which as sincere journalists we would not ourselves write. II. CARE; COMPETENCY; THOROUGOHESS Inaccuracy in journalism is commonly due more to lack of mental equipment than to wilfulness of attitude. The ill-equipped man cannot be more competent as a journalist than he can as a doctor or engineer. Given an ethical attitude, the contribution that each journalist makes to his community and to society is nearly in ratio to his competency. We regard journalism as a THE OREGON CODE OF ETHICS 361 precise and a learned profession, and it is therefore the second part of this code that: 6. By study and inquiry and observation, we will constantly aim to improve ourselves, so that our writings may be more authentic, and of greater perspective, and more conducive to the social good. 7. We will consider it an essential in those we employ that they not merely be of ethical attitude, but reasonably equipped to carry out their ideals. 8. We will make care our devotion in the preparation of statements of fact and in the utterance of opinion. 9. We will advocate in our respective communities the same thoroughness, sound preparation, and pride of craft, that we desire in ourselves, our employees, and our associates. 10. We are accordingly the active enemies of superficiality and pretense. III. JUSTICE; MERCY; KINDLINESS Liberty of the press is, by constitution, statute, and custom, greater in the United States than anywhere else in the world. This liberty exists for our press so that the liberty of the whole people may thereby be guarded. It so happens that at times the liberty of the press is exercised as license to infringe upon the rights of groups and of individuals: because custom and law have brought about certain immunities, it happens that in haste or zeal or malice or indifference, persons are unjustly dealt by. Yet the freedom of the press should at all times be exercised as the makers of the constitu 362 APPENDICES tion, and the people themselves through their tolerance, have intended it. The reputations of men and women are sacred in nature and not to be torn down lightly. We therefore pronounce it appropriate to include in this code that: 11. We will not make "privileged utterance" a cloak for unjust attack, or spiteful venting, or carelessness in investigation, in the cases of parties or persons. 12. We will aim to protect, within reason, the rights of individuals mentioned in public documents, regardless of the effect on "good stories" or upon editorial policy. 13. We will deal by all persons alike so far as is humanly possible, not varying from the procedure of any part of this code because of the wealth, influence, or personal situation of the persons concerned, except as hereinafter provided. 14. It shall be one of our canons that mercy and kindliness are legitimate considerations in any phase of journalism; and that if the public or social interest seems to be best conserved by suppression, we may suppress; but the motive in such instances must always be the public or social interest, and not the personal or commercial interest. 15. We will try so to conduct our publication, or to direct our writing, that justice, kindliness, and mercy will characterize our work. IV. MODERATION; CONSERVATISM; PROPORTION Since the public takes from the journalist so great a proportion of the evidence upon which it forms its THE OREGON CODE OF ETHICS 363 opinions, obviously that evidence should be of high type. The writer who makes his appeal to the passions rather than to the intellect is too often invalid as a purveyer of evidence because his facts are out of perspective. By improper emphasis, by skillful arrangement, or by devices of typography or rhetoric, he causes the formation in the reader's mind of unsound opinion. This practice is quite as improper as and frequently is more harmful than actual prevarication. Through this code we desire to take a position against so-called sensational practice by acceptance of the following canons: 16. We will endeavor to avoid the injustice that springs from hasty conclusion in editorial or reportorial or interpretative practice. 17. We will not overplay news or editorial for the sake of effect when such procedure may lead to false deductions in readers' minds. 18. We will regard accuracy and completeness as more vital than our being the first to print. 19. We will try to observe due proportion in the display of news to the end that inconsequential matter may not seem to take precedence in social importance over news of public significance. 20. We will in all respects in our writing and publishing endeavor to observe moderation and steadiness. 21. Recognizing that the kaleidoscopic changes in news tend to keep the public processes of mind at a superficial level, we will try to maintain a news and an editorial policy that will be less ephemeral in its influence upon social thought. 864 APPENNDICES V. PARTISANSHIP; PROPAGANDA We believe that the public has confidence in the printed word of journalism in proportion as it is able to believe in the competency of journalists and have trust in their motives. Lack of trust in our motives may arise from the suspicion that we shape our writings to suit nonsocial interests, or that we open our columns to propaganda, or both. Accordingly we adopt the following professional canons: 22. We will resist outside control in every phase of our practice, believing that the best interests of society require intellectual freedom in journalism. 23. We will rise above party and other partisanship in writing and publishing, supporting parties and issues only so far as we sincerely believe them to be in the public interest. 24. We will not permit, unless in exceptional cases, the publishing of news and editorial matter not prepared by ourselves or our staffs, believing that original matter * is the best answer to the peril of propaganda. VL PUBLIC SERVICE AND SOCIAL POLICY We dispute the maxim sometimes heard that a newspaper should follow its constituency in public morals and policy rather than try to lead it. We do not expect to be so far ahead of our time that our policies will be impractical; but we do desire to be abreast of the best thought of the time, and if possible to be its guide. It is not true that a newspaper should be only as advanced in its ethical atmosphere as it conceives the average of its readers to be. No man who is not in THE OREGON CODE OF ETHICS 365 ethical advance of the average of his community should be in the profession of journalism. We declare there-. fore as follows: 25. We will keep our writing and our publications free from unrefinement, except so far as we may sin-. cerely believe publication of sordid details to be for the social good. 26. We will consider all that we write or publish for public consumption in the light of its effect -upon social policy, refraining from writing or from publishing if we believe our material to be socially detrimental. 27. We will regard our privilege of writing for pub-. lication or publishing for public consumption as an enterprise that is social as well as commercial in char-. acter, and therefore will at all times have an eye against doing anything counter to social interest. 28. We believe it an essential part of this policy that we shall not be respecters of persons. VII. ADVERTISING A1ND CIRCULATI-ON We repudiate the principle of "letting the buyer lieware." We cannot agree to guarantee advertising, but we assume a definite attitude toward the advertising that we write, solicit, or print. We believe that the same canons of truth and justice should apply in adver-. tising and circulation as we are adopting for news and editorial matter. We therefore agree to the following business principles: 29. We will coo**perate with those social interests whose business it is to raise the ethical standard of advertising. 366 APPENDICES 30. We will discourage and bar from our columns advertising which in our belief is intended to deceive the reader in his estimate of what is advertised. (This clause is intended to cover the many phases of fraud, and unfair competition, and the advertising of articles that seem likely to be harmful to the purchaser's morals or health.) 31. We will not advertise our own newspaper or its circulation boastfully, or otherwise, in terms not in harmony with the clauses of this code of ethics. (This is intended to cover misleading statements to the public or to advertisers as to the whole number of copies printed, number of paid-up subscribers, number of street sales, and percentage of local circulation.) 32. We will not make our printing facilities available for the production of advertising which we believe to be socially harmful or fraudulent in its intent. To the foregoing code we subscribe heartily as a part of our duty to society and of our belief that the salvation of the world can come only through the acceptance and practice by the people of the world of a sound and practical ethical philosophy. INDEX Action, man's interest in, 54 Activity, man's tendency to, 53, 54 Advertisers, national publishers, must sell town to, 252 Advertising, agencies, 259, 261 - an appeal to do something, 277, 278 -as utility matter, 139, 182 - builds good will, 175, 176 - by "departments," 146, 147 -227, 228 --church: see Church Advertising - classified, 263-276 ----advertising of, 269, 270 --- articles and index for, Milwaukee Journal, 337 -342 ---articles possible to advertise, 337-340 --- cash and credit, 272 -- display in, 266, 267 - - Editor and Publisher suggestions, 276 - - educating the reader, 267, 268 --fundamental utility of, 264, 265.-- "helps" for users of, Brooklyn Eagle, 276, 353-357 -- -"helps for users of, Oakland Tribune, 351 -353 Advertising, classified, helps in writing, 275, 276 -- ideas and schemes, 275 - - influence of publisher over, 266 - - likened to department store, 267 - - uneven development of, 263 -- N. Y. Times, 271 - --noncommercial uses of, 265 --Perkins, C. L. on, 274 -- promotion of, 265-267 --rates, 270, 271 - - rates and regulations, Chicago Daily News, 343 -347 -- - London Times, 348 -350 --- N. Y. Times, 350, 351 - - recent development of, 263 - - salesmen and compensation, 272-274 - - scope of, 264, 265 - - selling problem, 268 ---Strout Farm Agency, 270 - - two kinds of users, 268 - - typical index, 340-342 - cooperative, 288 - copy, helping advertisers with, 228 367 368 INDEX Advertising, distribution cost reduced by, 168 - earnings from, compared with those from circulation, 237, 238 "--earnings per reader, 200 - economy: time, labor, money, 173 -error of subordinating, 180 - essential to circulation promotion, 206 -expenditure, limit of, 228 -232 -free institutions: see Free Institutions, Advertising - from competing towns, 232 - function of, 31, 42, 43, 168, 170 - government, local: see Government, local, advertising - health office: see Health Office Advertising - helpful, publisher's influence for, 142, 143, 182, 183 -hospital: see Hospital Advertising -idea, necessity to grasp, 167 - makes rapid turnover, 169, 172 - medium best, most helpful to reader, 190 "- - commendation to readers, 195-197 --creating an, 179-199 -- defects of local papers as, 180, 181 --force of technical, 187 -190 - - limiting territory covered by, 192 - - must be consciously planned, 179 Advertising, medium, physical make-up of, 191, 192 - - qualifications of a good, 20, 115, 181-183 - - reader influence of, 181-4 185 - - scientific, 186 - - territory, adapting to conditions, 193 -- value per reader, 194 - mercantile, example of useless, 46, 180 - - informative, 45, 46, 140, 141 - - of advertising, 144-147 - national, 249-262 - - definite policy important, 249 -- selling story, 250-253 -- what it is, 261, 262 - necessity for, 167-178 - necessity of, to efficient merchandizing, 43, 168 -170, 172-175 - new uses of, 277-296 - noncommercial, 176, 177, 277-296 -- selling of, 234 - profits of, 170, 171, 172 - public school: see Public School Advertising - public service: see Public Service Advertising - rate cards, typical, 335, 336 - rates, bases of, 243-248 - - church, 245 - - fixing, 243-248 - - mechanical cost as-basis of, -244 - - principle of differential, 246-248 - - recommended by Nation Editorial Association, 333 INDEX 369 Advertising, rates, 75 newspapers, 333, 334 ----sliding scale, 245 - attitude toward, change in, 137, 144 - reader's appreciation of, 141, 142, 182 - reduces selling cost, 173 "--retail, 171 -salesmen, how to secure, 219 - - work of, 234, 235 - selling, 172 - - circulars suggested, 221 -225 - - circulation in detail, 218 --- departments, 227 -- dependent upon education, 213 --"honor mark" in, 227 -- how to do it, 212-235 -- list of prospects, 220 -- machine, 170 - - noncommercial, 234 - - publisher's main business problem, 212 -- requires familiarity with merchandising, 213 -- requires right merchandising, 226 --scientific medium, 214 -- story of, 214-219 k-suburban, absence of resources in, 311 - -in Montclair, N. J., 320, 321 -- resources, 320 -supplements text, 185 -to serve reader, 137-150, 172 --use of, in small towns, 213 -what it does, 177, 277, 278 -- wrong, 181 Age groups, how paper may serve, 122-124 Agencies, advertising, 259 -261 - public serving, classification of, 18, 19 --loss of contact with town dwellers, 18 --need of paid space in local paper, 20, 21 - - the voice of the, 29-48 Alvord, T. H., 243 American City, 154 Amusements, need of service of local paper, 30 Appeal, 99 - level of, 103, 104 --sources of human, 49-68, 100, 101 "-"Yellow" journal, source of, 88, 89, 101, 104, 105 Appreciation, 107-110 Arrangement of paper's contents, 135-136 Art, relations of, to sex instinct, 56, 63 Atkinson, Edward, 168 Attitude, constructive, importance of, for the editor, 94-97, 110, 111, 112 -of paper, active, 303, 304 I- toward advertising, change in, 137 Audit Bureau of Circulations, 253, 254 Babson, Roger W., 296 Background, news, importance of, 124, 125 Banking, and the local paper, 47 Bingay, Malcolm, 50 Bing, Phil. C., 50, 121, 156 SBlake, William, 60 370 INDEX Bleyer, W. G., 50 Bridge, Don, 256 Brooke, Rupert, 63 Brooklyn Eagle, 276, 353 -357 Brown, C. F., 257 Budget, use of, by publishers, 304, 305 Business men, organizations of, 232 Buying, consumer's need of guidance in, 71, 72 Cabot, Richard C., 59 Capital required, 309-310 Census, U. S., 15, 179 Chicago Daily News, rates and regulations, 343-347 Children, interests, of, and on paper, 122-124 Church advertiser, Editor and Publisher on, 290 #-advertising, 30-34, 148, 289-296 - bibliography, 294 -joint, 294, 295 --prejudice against, 30, 31,preparation of copy, 32-34 --publisher's duty to solicit, 31 9--reasons for, 30, 31 - selling, 233 Church, needs of the, 290 -news, 31-33, 76, 77 Churches, newspaper's relations with, 10, 11, 30-34, 76, 77 -selling space to, 293, 294 Circulation, a straight selling problem, 205, 206 #---character of, of the local paper, 97 Circulation, earnings from, compared with those from advertising, 237, 238 - essentials to, 115 - in detail, 218 --price policy, basis of, 239, 240 --promotion, advertising essential to, 206 - -- circulars, 207, 208 -- methods of, 206-208 --receipts from, 179 - saturation, 211 - solicitors, 208, 209 - -- as reporters and sellers of space, 209 --use of premiums, 210 - work before starting paper, 308 Citizen, need for information on local affairs of, 22 Class groups, how paper may serve, 124 Classified advertising: see Advertising, Classified Clothing and the paper, 131 Clubs, need of paper's service, 34 Community, newspaper needs of, 1-90 - service, man's need to cooperate in, 67 Conflict, 58 "Constructive Altruism," 64 Constructive suggestion, editor's opportunity for, 110, 111 Consumer, problems of the, 8, 10, 44, 70-74 - want undifferentiated, 167 Contents of editorial page, 159-164 --arrangement of, 135, 136 --of paper, analysis of, 99, 100 INDEX 371 Contents, relation to advertising medium, 179, 182, 184, 185 Corporations, public utilities: see Public Service Advertising Correspondence, use of, on editorial page, 161-163 Cost finding, importance of, 305 Creative presentation, 104 -107 Crime story, emphasis in, 87, 88, 105-107 Criminal, 60 Criticism, 113, 114 Cultivation, intensive, of local field, 14, 98 Dealer, and the newspaper, 42-47, 140, 141 -how publisher can help to educate, 43, 140, 141,142, 143 Democracy, town the working unit of, 16 Department, merchandising, 254-259 Developments in town life, handling of, 10, 80, 125 -128, 317 Distribution, commodity, advertising the key to, 168 ----cost of, reduced by advertising, 168 -- dependent on information, 167, 168 Douglass, Harlan, 98 Dymait, Colin, 358 Earnings, advertising, per reader, 200 Earnings, comparative, from advertising and circulation, 237, 238 Editor, 93-114 - aim of, 89, 90 - constructive attitude for, 94-97, 110, 111, 112 - equipment of, for large local journalism, 14, 94, 99, 153 --importance of, 93, 94, 97 --misuse of power of, 86, 87 -resources of, 97-99 - source of power of, 86 - specialist in municipal affairs, 35, 153 - tendency to superficiality of average, 98 Editor and Publisher, 243, 276, 290 Editorial, group suggestibility and the, 158, 159 - page, 151-164 - contents of, 159-164 *-.use of, as reader's forum, 159-163 - value of, to reader, 151, 152 --psychology of the, 156-159 -subject matter, 153 Editorials of persuasion, 156 -158 Emotion, religious, sources of, 63 Energy, redirection of human, 58 Enterprise, bearing of, on field, 300 Enterprises, new, publisher's discouragement of, in lines already crowded, 47 --- publisher's encouragement of, 46, 47 Environment, man's relation to, 53 372 INDEX Exchanges, 163, 164 Fact, 99 Field, bearing of enterprise on, 300 --character of local merchants in, 301 - economic considerations, 299, 300 - general resources of, 299 -302 - selecting a, 299-302 --trade in, 300 Flint, Leon U., 156 Foster, M. E., 254 Fourth Estate, 242 Frankenberg, T. T., 49 Free institutions, advertising of, 279-281 Friendship, man's need of, 66 Fruit growers, California, 171 Goddard, H. H., 54 Good Housekeeping, 227 Good will, relation of advertising to, 175, 176 --what it is, 324, 325 Government, local, advertising, 147, 153-156, 281, 282 -- paper's relation to, 10, 11, 22-28, 78, 79 Gregariousness, 56, 57, 60,108 Group spirit, 5 --suggestibility and the editorial, 158, 159 Health office, advertising, 286-288 Herd, instinct of the, 56, 57, 60, 108 Hollingworth, H. L., 8 Home-making and local paper, 73, 74, 131, 132, 133, 135 "Honor mark," 227 Hospitals, advertising, 29, 30, 37-39, 77, 280, 281 House-building, the paper as an aid to, 73, 74, 129-131 Household management, the paper as an aid to, 73, 74, 131, 132, 133, 135 Human motive, analysis of, 52-65 - and the newspaper man, 50 Impartiality, need for, in reporting news of public service corporations, 40 Industries, local, need of local paper's service, 41, 42 Information, paper's responsibility to readers for, 10, 11 - sales: two kinds, 169 --utility, preparation of, 80 -82 --townsman's need of, 9, 11, 67, 70-74, 77-79 Ingenuity, man's need to use and develop, 67 Inspiration, 112 Instinct, definition of, 53 --direct expression of, 58 - herd, 56, 57, 60, 108 -of self preservation, 55 - sex, 55, 56 - sublimation of, 61-65 Instincts, conflict of, 58 Happiness, conditions human, 58 Harrington, H. F., 49 of INDEX 373 Instincts, in civilized man, 57, 58 Institutions, loss of touch with townsman, 18 Intelligence, 57 note --level of in U. S., 54 Interests, men's, paper's discussion of, 73 Interest, news, sources of legitimate, 69 --suburban, cultivation of, 314, 315 Items, personal, importance of, 9, 120-124 James, William, 61, 107, 108 Journalism, ethics for, Oregon Code, 358-366 ---larger local, qualifications for, 14, 94, 99 Kipling, Rudyard, 59 Labor, division of, in town life, 4, 16-18 Leader in local mercantile life, publisher as, 43, 44 Leaders, how paper can develop new, 12, 13 how paper can serve, 11, 12 Leadership in town life, 4, 8, 11, 12 --man's need to develop capacity for, 67 Lecture courses, need of service of local paper, 30 Level, moral, of community, 103, 104 Libido, 56 Libraries, newspaper's service to, 29, 36 Life, community, parental instinct in, 56 - town, advantages of, 17, 18 "Listening in" on the reader, 49-68 Local paper, defects as advertising medium, 180, 181 Local publisher, eliminator of waste, 236 Lodges, need of paper's service, 34 London Times, 271 - rates for "Small" advertisements, 348-350 Lord Northeliffe, 107 McDougall, William, 7, 57 Macintosh, Charles H., 213 Macy, R. H. & Co., 138 Man, dissatisfied, attempted adjustments of to life, 59-61 --normal, optimism of, 96, 104 "Mandalay," 59 Matter, nonlocal, exclusion of, 118-120 selection of, 104 - subject, editorial, 153 Mechanical cost as basis of advertising rate, 244 Medium, advertising: see Advertising Medium Merchandising, department, 254-259 - necessity for advertising in efficient, 43, 168-170, 172-175 Merchant, how paper can serve, 42-47 374 374 INDEX Merchant, howi publisher can help to educate, 43, 140, 141, 142, 143 Milwaukee Journal, articles and index for classified, 337-342 Montclair Times, 148, 149, 157 Moral level of community, 103, 104 Motives, human, analysis of, 52-65 Municipal Journal, 154 Museums, newspaper's service to, 29, 37 National advertising: see Advertising, National -Editorial Association, advertising rates recommended by, 333 Needs, townsman's, 65-68 Neighborliness, 3, 5, 6, 97 -outgrowths of, in town life, 6-8 Newcomers, paper's relations with, 109, 110 News background, importance of, 124, 125 -church, 31-33, 76, 77 -constructive presentation,of, 128 -definition of, 49, 127 -general, exclusion of, from local paper, 118-120 - -reader's appetite for, 115, 116 interest, sources of legitimate, 69 -local, handling of, 120-124 -- reader's interest in, 116 -118 -personal, handling of, 107 -110, 1111 112,, 120-124 News, general, need of, 9, 82-85, 124 Newspaper, as guide, philosopher and friend, 69-90 local, need for new kind of, 9 -- range of opportunity, 9, 519 68, 127 --special sphere of, 127 -needs of the community, 1-90 Newspapers, daily, subscription rates of, 241, 242 News values, 49, 50, 80-85, 127 -of developments in town life, 10, 80, 125 - of tendencies in town life, 10, 80, 125 New York American, 101-3 New York Evening Post, 87, 88, 106, 107 New York Globe, 243 New York Times, 271 - classified rates, 350, 351 Noncommercial, advertising: See Advertising, Noncommercial - uses of classified advertising, 265 Oakland Tribune, 351-353 Officials, local, newspaper's relation to, 10, 11, 24-2,8 Old people, interests of, and the paper, 124 Opportunity, suburban, how to capitalize, 313, 314 "Oregon code of ethics," 358 -366 Organism, the town as an, 4, 14 Organizations, business men's, 232 INDEX 375 Organizations, need of paid space in local paper, 21 - social, newspaper's relations with, 10, 11 Page, editorial: see Editorial Page Paper, buying a, 309 - contents of: See Contents of Paper - defects of local as advertising medium, 180, 181 "-plan for, 306, 307 -size of, 308 -surburban: see Suburban Paper --threefold service of the local, 15-28 - type, stock and ink for, 307 Parental instinct in community life, 56 Perception, 53, 100, 104 Perkins, C. L., 274 Personal news, handling of, 107-110, 111, 112, 120 -124 --need of, 9, 82-85, 121-124 Peterson, A. W., 241, 242 Play, man's need of, 66 Poffenberger, A. T., Jr., 8 Policy and management, points in, 303-310 Power, 187 Practical matter, preparation of, 80-82, 129-135 Premiums, use of, in increasing circulation, 210 Price of the paper, 239 "Primitive sympathy," 57 Printing office, relation to success, 305, 306 Producer, newspaper's relation to, 10, 41, 74 Producer, use of paid space in paper by, 74 Profits, and property value, 325, 326 --possible in large journalism, 90, 179 Pronoun, editorial, significance of, 83-85 Psychology, need of training in, for editor, publisher, 50-52, 68 Public schools advertising, 10,11, 29, 30, 35, 36, 282 -287 -Providence, R. I., 283 - Sioux City, Iowa, 283-286 Public sentiment, paper as creator of, 13 Public service advertising, 39 -41, 75, 148, 149, 288 Public Service Corporation of N. J., 149 Public serving agencies, the voice of the, 29-48 Publisher, and his field, 299 -330 --local, eliminator of waste, 236 -need of freedom from detail, 304 Publishing business, risks of, 237 - enhancement, factor of compensation, 325 - estimating value, 328 - property, building and valuing, 324-330 - relation of tangibles to value of, 328, 329 --stability, elements of, 326 -328 -value illustrated, 324, 325 - valuing in absence of profit, 329, 330 Purpose, life, 52 376 INDEX Qualifications for new local journalism, 14, 94, 99 Rates, 236-248 - a complicated problem, 238, 239 -See also Advertising Rates, Subscription Rates, Circulation, etc. Rationalization, 54, 60 Reader, attitude toward advertising, change in, 137, 144 -education of, to use classified, 267, 268 influence of advertising medium, 181-185 "0'listening in" on the, 49 -68 -opportunity of paper to educate, 51, 143 -recogniition of, 107, 109 -110 -training the, 143-147 Readers, enlisting, 200-211 Real estate, buying and selling of, and the local paper, 47 Reason, place of, in determining conduct, 54 Retail advertising, 171 Religious emotion, sources of, 63 Reproduction, 55, 56 Resources, undeveloped, of local paper, 11 Rogers, Jason on fixing advertising rates, 243 Rumors, prevention of, 10, 74 Sales information: two kinds, 1 I69 Salesmanship, 169, 1L70 Salesmen, advertising, how to secure, 219 and compensation, advertising, classified, 272-274 -work of, 234, 235 Sales work done by printing, 170 Schools, public, advertising of: see Public Schools Advertising "Selective perception," 53, 100, 104 Self-preservation, 55 Self-service store, 174 Selling-cost, advertising re-. duces, 173 Selling story, 202-205 - of advertising, 214-219 - of national advertising, 250-253 Sensationalism, source of appeal, 88, 89, 101, 104, 105 -strength and weakness of, 101-103 Service, threefold, of the local paper, advantages of, to publisher, 48 - -definition of, 19, 20 ---examples of, 24-28, 37-39, 40, 41, 44-46 -missionary, 291 Sex instinct, 55, 56 - indirect expressions of, 56 - sublimation of, 63 Sex, man's need of social relations with opposite, 66 Sioux City School advertising, 283-286 Solicitors, circulation, as reporters and sellers of space, 209 Space, selling, 172 Sale of paper, must be pushed, 240, 241 INDEX 377 Specialized journal, local paper as, 80 Standard Rate and Data Service, 241, 242 Story, crime, analysis of, 105, 106 - sensational, handling the, 88, 89, 101, 103, 104-107 Strout, E. A. Farm Agency, 270 Structure, community, how to strengthen, 19-22 ---weaknesses in, 18, 19 Sublimation, 61-65 Subscription rate, 239 -of daily newspapers, 241, 242 -policy, basis of, 239, 240 Suburban, advertising in Montclair, N. J., 320, 321 - resources, 320 --developments, attitude toward, 317 --field, absence of advertising resources in, 311 --- advantages, 312, 313 - -- disadvantages, 311, 312 - interests, cultivating, 314, 315 --opportunity, how to capitalize, 313, 314 --paper, following the customers to larger towns, 320, 321 - playing up people, 322 --- problems and opportunities, 311-323 --- using the people who can write, 323 - --utility matter in, 318, 319 --taxes, constructive side of, 317 Suburb, selling the, 316, 317 Suggestibility, 57, 85 Suggestibility, group and the editorial, 158, 159 Suggestion, constructive, editor's, opportunity for, 110, 111 Sympathy, 111, 112, 121-124 - primitive, 57 Tansley, A. G., 54, 56, 58, 61, 63 Taxes, suburban, constructive side of, 317 Technical advertising medium, force of, 187-190 Tendencies in town life, handling of, 125-128 news value of, 10, 80, 125 Territory, adapting to conditions, 193 - limiting, 192 --map of, 205, 217 Text, how supplemented by advertising, 185 "Threefold service" of the local paper, advantages to publisher, 48 - definition of, 19, 20 - examples of, 24-28, 37-39, 40, 41, 44-46 Tolerance, editor's need of, 114 Town, evolution of, 3-6, 15, 16, 98, 99 -life, advantages of, 17, 18 --national importance of the, 15, 16 - necessity, the publisher's opportunity, 1-14 --paper's picture of, 89, 90 Towns, competing, advertising from, 232 --small, use of advertising in, 213 INDEX Townsman, loss of personal contact with public serving agencies, 18 -needs of, 65-68 -tendency of, to see community through editor's eyes, 93, 94, 112 Trade mark, value of, 176 Trotter, W., 55, 57 Turnover, rapid, dependent on advertising, 169, 172 Utility matter, advertising as, 139, 182 -- definition of, 115 ---local paper as purveyer of, 10,128, 129, 318, 319 -preparation of, 80-82,129 -135 range of, 129-135 Utility matter, townsman's need of, 70-74, 128, 129 Value, publishing property, and profits, 325, 326 --estimating, 328 -- illustrated, 324, 325 -- in absence of profit, 329, 330 --relation of tangibles, 328, 329 Walker, Edmund & Co., 238 "We," editorial, significance of, 83-85 Wells, H. G., 62 Whitman, Walt, 99 Work, man's need of, 65 "Yellow" journal, source of appeal, 88, 89, 101, 104, 105 -strength and weakness of, 101-103 (1) I THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN DATE DUE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SIII III II 1111111111 3 9015 01297 9194 DUE If this book is not returned on or before the above date a fine of five (5) (ents per day will be incurred by the borrower. The charge for this book may be renewed if no one is waiting for it. To renew the charge, the book must be brought to the desk. DO NOT RETURN BOOKS ON SUNDAY GENERAI Univer'* IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIf