St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-07-15

lIlUuuC, lluiCo anu GNChih5 Oobs
while
The Converse Side
of securing business clientage is Illus
trated in way that would be amusing
if it were not pathetic, by that abno1-
NAL and fantastic cross between news
and pietetics which mails and expresses
itself to the truly good, daily except
Sunday.
Considered in the large, the circula-
ton side of the American newspaper
has many indefensible aspects. AS
nothing succeeds like success" or the
appearance of success, the prestige and
profit or not few newspapers are min
istered unto by rotund and deceptive
representations of calculations. As few
can live, much less profit,on their circu-
latiOnS alone, it becomes greatly I'M
portant to make the advertiser see cir
culation through the large end of the
telescope, and so the fine art of telling
truth without lying is live and peren-
NAL study in many counting rooms.
Discussing the circulation question not
long ago with the head of leading re-
ligious paper, he told me that the num-
Der of copies he printed was a thing
that he never stated definitely, because
the publishers of the other
Religious Newspapers Lied
so about their calculations that he would
do himself injustice if he were to tell
the truth about his own. The secular
papers should set an example for their
religious brethren, but they do not, for
from many of them there is lying-sys-
tematic, persistent, and more or less
colossal. Not long ago. within few
days of each other, three men who were
simultaneously employed on certain
paper told me their actual circulation,
cOnfidentially, too. One of them put 1t
at $1,000, the second at no. 900. and the
third at 10000, and each of them lied,
for their lying was so diversified and
entertaining that felt real interest in
securing the truth, and so l took some
trouble to ask the pressman about it.
He told me, very confidentially, that it
was 120,00U-and he lied. By this time
my interest was so heightened that
told my personal friend, the publisher,
about the inartistic and incoherent men-
dacity of his SubOrdinateS, whereupOn
he laughingly showed me his circulation
book. which clearly, and | have no
doubt truthfully, exhibited an average
of $4,000.
At this very hour there are four daily
newspapers each of which has the larg
est circulation in the United States. OF
the 1886 American publications, only
103, in 1890, furnished detailed, open
and entirely trustworthy statements of
circulation.
The practical application OF this ar
raignment of indiSputable and uncanny
facts would be in prompt and agrees
i've movement by publishers themselves
throughout the country, toward
SOIidifying and VitaIizing
the suggestion already made by respon-
sible publishers and others, that this
whole circulation question shall, as is
the case with every other branch of
trade which deals by measure and guam
tity, be made matter of legal and gov
ornamental control. The government
takes specific care that pound shall
not be of fourteen or fifteen, but of six
teen ounces. and that yardstick shall
be of thIrty-siX inches, and nobody
complains of it, even to his inner con-
seriousness, unless he is or wants TO be
cheat. 1t is quite the thing in
ONE quarters to sneerat the publishers
affidavit of circulation, because it does
not carry with it the penalty of perjury.
But the sworn affidavit was adopted,
not because a penalty is attached to
perjured statements of newspaper cir
culatiOns. but as an ultimate evidence
of sincerity and care on the part of
those responsible for these statements
and of good faith with all who are or
who have right 10 be interested
therein. An honest mans word equals
his oath.
The difficulty in the circulation ques-
ton is not because of general diShOn-
eSty, for, as a whole, the trade in news
papers is in as honest hands as is that
of other business lines. but the intangi-
bilitieS and competitions incident to its
past and current conditions make
enough of uncertain and untruStWorthy
publishers to
Lead or Drive.
the large mass of them into reticence
and secretivenesS, so that the many
bear the sins of the few, and all of
them together suffer the evils and losses
and disabilities inseparable from any
traffic conducted, little or much, under
cover.
The other. and taking the country
over, probably the larger arm of our
business increment is advertising. Its
current magnitude, conditions and
tendencies entitle it to more than pas
sing notice. Printers Ink. a weekly
paper wholly and intelligently devoted
to newspaper advertising, estimates
that the total amount spent for adver-
Using space in America is in excess of
one hundred millions OF dollars an
nually. My friend S. G. Williams,
Eastern manager of the Chicago Even
ing Journal and Milwaukee Sentinel,
who has given discriminating study to
the subject, estimates that the news
paper advertising done in this country
each year equals 50 for each unit of
our present populations; that is about
S125, 100000. One advertiser is upon
record as having spent, within one
year, S750,000 for his own advertising,
and at least two score spend from $780,
600 upward. 1T is probable that the
general advertisers of the United States
who spend $4,000 or more each year
upon this means of trade stimulation
would
Fill Every Chair
in this room, and yet there remain $40
OO0, 900 or more which are paid by the
small space buyers to small and great
publications, scattered through almost
every county in the Union.
Newspaper advertising is rapidly be-
coming a science. Its subject matter
has assumed form, delineation, consise-
ness, perspicuity, expression, not
thought of fifteen years ago. Its money
earning power to the advertiser, and the
intrinsic value of his space to the pub
Usher are approaching with every year.
| Every considerable merchant in the
large towns has his trained and more or
| less acute advertisement writer. The
| vast general advertising agency inter
ests have, almost in a decade, passed
from mere brokerage to a distinct pro-
fessional status, and the advertiser has
become, not mere get-there-any-way-
yOu-can customer and bucket shop adven
| turer, but client, who seeks and acts
| upon quality of expert advice, which
in a few notable cases almost ranks the
advertiser among the exact sciences
and learned professions. The hold of
the advertising gambler, trickster and
| scalper is becoming weak and
nerveless, and the sooner he sinks
out of sight the sooner shall
we see the golden age of business news
paperdom. Studious, honest. judicious,
persistent and inclusive newspaper ad-
/ l.,