The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1890-05-22
THE ADVERTISING DEPART
MENT.

THE ADVERTISING DEPART
HENT.
Being unable to meet with the edit
ors OF the District at Charles City,
the following thoughts are submitted
on the topic assigned him, by w. K.
Mead. editor Of the PLAIN DEALER,
Cresco, Iowa.
The prime object Of every business
enterprise is money. The county
fair. the church sociable, the farm,
the factory, the shop Of the trades
man. a. well as the newspaper, are
conducted primarily for this purpose.
The general public has come to rec
ognize the fact that publishing
newspaper is business and not q
charity.
The capital Of the newspaper pub
Usher il the circulation obtained for
his journal: his advertising space is
what lie has to sell.
For this it il legitimate to charge
just and reasonable rates to all alike
to the county fair, to the church
for every entertainment for which it
charges fee, or whose object is
money, and for all notices and para
graphs which concern the business
interests Of some particular individu-
al rather than being general news
item for the public.
The country is full Of patriots
working for pay who consider the
newspapers legitimate objects Of
plumber, and who constantly prey
upon them for free advertising in
the public interest. II the public in
terest is to be pecuniarily benefited
by the advertising and it is money
making scheme for it, the advertising
should be paid for, instead Of impos-
ing it as tax on the publisher.
Cooperative sheets should not be
permitted to carry advertisements at
less rates than the publishers of re-
spectacle newspapers would charge,
and to pocket the proceeds. Such
competition in rates as they are en-
abled to give at the expense of the
patrons Of their ready, prints would
bankrupt any legitimate newspaper
enterprise, and the tendency is to re-
duce advertising rates below what is
just and reasonable.
Some years since the PLAIN DEALER
began using sheets from q ready
print house, paying small advance
over its price when running four or
five columns of its own advertise
ments. by an oversight of its fore
man, our sheets came one week with
the regular list of its advertisements
and reading notices, also a letter
from the business manager apologiz-
ing for their appearance. This was
followed by letters from s. NJ. Pettin-
gill, Geo. p. Rowell & Co., Dauchy T.
Co. and J. H. Bates of New York,
Nelson, Chesman s. Co. Of st. Louis,
n. w. Aver & Son of Philadelphia,
Lord & Thomas Of Chicago, and by
such individual advertisers as j. G.
Aver l. Co. and C. l. Hood of Lowell,
The Worlds Dispensary Co., Buffalo,
n. Y, and II. II. Warner & Co.,
Rochester, n. Y, telling us as we
had commenced using patent out.
sides we might cancel their advertis
ing contracts, as they each had con-
tracts with the several patent-side
print houses Of the country, naming
them. The advertising thus imper-
lied and which by the continuance OF
such sheets would have been lost to
us, nearly cqnaled the annual cost OF
our ready print.
Publishers are to blame for furnish
ing advertising agencies the means OF
announcing stated space annually
IN one hundred newspapers ut q price
that advertisers could not obtain
from ten respectable papers in the
same territory which had exclusive
control Of their advertising space.
Newspaper publishers should get
together for consultation, conference,
and exchange of opinion upon ques-
tions of SO vital Importance to their
business interests, and they should
see to it that whoever uses the adver-
tising space Of their sheets shall first
pay or contract therefor at such rea-
sonable price as the publisher puts
upon it.
Advertisers who make demand for
special positions for their advertise
ments and notices should invariably
be charged rates to correspond with
the additional trouble incident there
to, as we'll as for the higher value Of
such chosen position.
Space devoted to advertising the
fitness Of the willy politician for Office
should be paid for at the most liberal
rates. To adhere to this rule will
make the newspaper the vehicle Of
advanced thought instead of the
mouthpiece Of tricky politicians.
This is the way the republican Chi
cago Tribune gets after the ways and
means committee, which is respons-
tble for the Mckinley bill: 1.-THE
bill is finally before the house. The
members Of the committee have de.
scended from their Mount Sinai, their
faces still shining from the radiance
of trusts and syndicates. bearing their