The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-28 00:00:00

THE TWENTY-FIVE PER CENT

ADVERTISING AGENTS.
(From the Railway Express.)

.
A system has lately sprung up, engendered and
nourished by railway speculation, which " has increased,
is increasing, and must be diminished." It is alike in-
jurious to the respectable advertisement agents, and to
every journal which is the medium of advertisements.
We allude to the practices carried on, against railway
companies and the press, by improper persons who take
up the business of agents for advertising.
It came out this week at a meeting of railway share-
holders, that out of liabilities incurred on the part of
one company—liabilities amounting to 6,5001.—0ne item
was for 2,200/, on account of an advertising agent, "who
had charged 251. per cent. for inserting the company's
advertisements."

The established, respectable, responsible advertising
agents are bound to come forward and deny (for they
can do it) that such a charge of extortion can or does
refer to them.
We have heard of an advertising bill, and for an un-
opposed line, too, made out against a railway company
to the tune of 2,500/. ; a claim said to be incurred be-
tween July and November. Can any rational man
believe that such a claim was ever fairly incurred ?
Our firm belief is that one-fourth of the amount would
be sufficient, and more than sufficient, to give proper
and full publicity to any unopposed railway project.
When such charges are made—amounting, in the case
mentioned, to more than one-third of the entire liabi-
lities of the company—it is certain that they have not
been fairly made.
How, then, is the bill swelled up to an amount like
this ? We can explain how the trick is done. Within
the present week, several bills sent in by one of the
mushroom agents against different railway companies
were examined, to ascertain, by reference to newspaper
files, whether the advertisements said to have been in-
serted therein, and heavily charged for, had actually ap-
peared. It was found that in numerous cases the adver-
rsement had never been inserted, and that the actual
charges were always far beneath the agent's charges.
In one instance, an advertisement charged 5/. by the
newspaper, was charged 9/. 9s. by the agent. In another,
a two-guinea advertisement was charged eleven pounds.
Now these are transparent facts, and their operation
cannot be other than injurious to the press. When ad-
vertising becomes such an enormous tax, railway and
other people will naturally shrink from incurring it.
The respectable agents are confounded by advertisers
with the swindling agents, and suffer, by such confusion,
in pocket and in character.
What is the real state of the case? Every newspaper
has an established scale of prices. On such prices the
agent gets an allowance of from sto 10 per cent. We
belive that the custom is, for the agent further to charge
the party who employs him with 10 per cent. on the
gross amount ; nor is this a heavy allowance consider-
ing the agent's risks. The result is, that for an adver-
tisement which the newspaper would ordinarily charge
1/. cash, the company, ordering it through an agent, on
credit, would pay 1L 2s. This cannot be considered

unfair.
The agent of the Do-'em-all class asks 25 per cent.
from the newspapers, and charges another 25 per cent. to
the parties who employ him. This gives a nett profit of
50 per cent. One might hope this would be sufficient.
Not at all :—the Do-'em-all agent will not hesitate to
take ss. out of every 20i. from newspapers, and then,
multiplying the said 20s. by two or three, charges 25 per
cent. on the amount thus obtained. We may state a case.
A Do-'em- all agent inserted an advertisement in a news-
paper, the fair price of which was 30s. The newspaper,
in self-defence, charged forty shillings, to allow the
agent his 25 per cent. The agent made out a bill, not
for the 2/., but for St., and charged the company 251.
per cent. on that charge, making a total of 101. for an
advertisement which actually cost thirty shillings, and
for which, with the usual credit to respectable adver-
tisers, the legitimate agent would have charged about
335. No wonder, the public will say, that oertain ad-
vertising accounts are so heavy.
Respectable journals will not allow the Do-'em-all
agent more than 10 per cent., and do not like to deal
with bin except for cash ; but there are petty mushroom
papers, which are glad to take advertisements on such
terms, and the agent, having credit with them, instead of
putting the advertisements, as he is desired, into papers
of good repute and circulation, slips them into the petty
unknown journals, where no one can see them, and thus
robs the established papers, and cheats the company
which unhappily employs him.
The press suffer very much from this class of agents.
Unless they give them credit, advertisements are care-
fully excluded from them; and, when they do trust them,
the payments are " few and far between," and, at last,
when the bubble bursts and the crash comes, when the
firm is done up, there are usually amounts on the wrong
side of the newspapers' ledgers. Every way, then, the
newspapers are the sufferers.
The game cannot last long. Meanwhile, we believe
that we discharge a public duty in making these re-
marks.