Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1888-03-01
ADVERTISING RATES
Making a Schedule OF Prices al
LII

Making a Schedule OF Prices and
Sticking To 1t.
The following paper on advertising rates
was read before the recent meeting of bust
ness managers of leading American daily
newspapers at Indianapolis, Ind, by George
G. Hit, Esq, business manager of the Indi-
annapolis Journal He said:
1 have been asked to say something to this
meeting about "Making Advertising Rates
and Sticking to Them" To present any
thing new to you on the subject of adverti-
sing is out of the question. Every phase of
the matter has been talked and written about
by all of you until you are as familiar with
it as the high school scholar is with the mul
tiplication table. Yet 1 will venture to
thresh some of the old straw, hoping that a
grain or two Of wheat may be found.
In the first place how is a publisher to hx
a schedule of advertising rates? Exactly as
he fixes a subscription rate, a hotel
man fixes hotel charges; by making an arbi-
trary price and then saying to the public,
s'That is what it is worth to me-try it and
see if it is worth that to you" The public
soon tests the matter and if it pays the price
gets its moneys worth and comes again; that
is a good rate for paper or a hotel to
stand by.
After having made an arbitrary schedule
of rates the publisher should determine
certain arbitrary discounts on time con-
sing, in erder to put himself in harmony
with other lines of business, in which
much of anything is always sold for less,
in proportion, than little. In making
these arbitrary rates and discounts he
should take into account all the circum-
stances and surroundings of his newspaper
and use the best of business judgment in
determining the value of his advertising
space Then he should give them fair
| trial and if they be too high and drive away
customers cut them down; if too low, and
| there be good ground for increasing them, do
| it and be firm about it.
THE RATE PER LINE.
| I have personally no faith in these elabo-
rate plans for determining rate per line per
| thousand whatever may be the opinion of
| this association. They ere as unsatisfactory
| as the country grocer's price-list on eggs,
which reads fStrictly fresh eggs, twenty
| Eve cents; fresh eggs, twenty cents; eggs,
| fifteen cents" A Thousand circulation OF
| the Chicago Tribune is worth five times as
| much as thousand circulation of Keokuk
paper for instance; and why try to make 6
rate that will fit both in proportion to circu-
lation only! One is in every sense a newspa
per, is great in its influence and each copy is
read by many persons; the other is the op
posite of all these things.
Again, when papers are put in classes an6
| an attempt is made to grade the rates pei
lire per thousand, the same difficulty meets
US, namely, no two papers have like charao
| teristics and no rule will work with all O.
them.
There are SO many things to be taken into
consideration, such as the typographical ap
pearance of paper, the kind of advertising
it accepts, the class of people among whom
it circulates, the field it has, its standing ani
influence therein, its politics, etc., ETC., tina