Cottonwood report. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1893-1901, 1894-04-06
COUNTRY WEEKLY.
ITS MERITS ovEReMAGAzlNES AS
AN ADVERTISING MEDIUM.

Written expressly for this paper.l
! The most extensive advertisers say
that, after all, advertising is an expert
ment. They do not hide the fact that il
is paying experiment. The doubt that
accompanies all experiments is as to the
best methods and the best mediums.
The phenomenal success in securing
advertising of the magazines and special
or class publications, that have a ma
tional circulation and comparatively q
small local or home constituency, pre-
sents an interesting phase of the adver-
Using situation.
COVERING GROUND TWICE.
For one who uses the papers, may
say, almost nationally, to also advertise
IN the magazines, it appears that his
outlay In the latter is in measure COW
ering ground twice. The magazines 90
to readers OF newspapers, who have long
ago seen an advertisement before It
reaches them in the former, On the
principle that one can never see an adj
vertisement too often and in too MANY
mediums, such an advertisement doubt
less does no little good; but surely
general advertiser, whose wares are noted
in the pages of the newspapers, can hope
for little direct returns for his working
the ground over again in magazines.
MAGAZINE VS.. NEWSPAPER.
OF course, it is understood that there
is an indirect, but by no means insignif-
lcant, benefit to be derived from one see-
ing an article advertised in his magazine:
but there can be little doubt that, If he
has seen the same article day by day or
week by week in his home newspaper.
the magazine advertisement will not be
the influence that causes him to pur-
chase it.
That there is caste in advertising as in
society one may not safely deny. An infe-
rior article does impress its s.importancen
in some degree by appearing in the pages
OF first-class magazine of large circula-
ton, and it may, thus supplemented, Sc
cure sale through the newspapers. It il
quite in the realm of certainty, however,
to assume that an article of general use
finds market through local newspapers,
and almost through them alone.
THE Newspapers ADVANTAGE.
Where an article is advertised in mag
azines only, reaching hundreds of thou
sands of people, sales will most assured
ly be effected; but they will be far more
limited than they would be were the
same amount of money that is spent
with the magazines placed with the home
papers of tae consumers. The bulky
pages OF magazines are seldom carefully
scanned; whereas, with even mammoth
metropolitan Sunday papers the adver-
tisements are all more or less read be-
cause OF their being so easily seen, and
because of the fact that many of them
are on pages with reading matter.
AS a rule the advertising pages of mag
azines are not interspersed with reading
matter. This is all the better for the
subscriber; but, alas it is not quite SO
consoling to the advertiser. For even the
largest local general dealers to cultivate
the pages OF magazines seems daring and
hazardous experiment. The circulation
is over the entire Union, and there are
not sufficient nearby consumers to rec
ompense the expense for readers away
beyond the confines of the dealers trade
territory,
What good would it do the largest dry
goods house on the Coast to advertise in
the magazine with the largest circu-
lation in the United States? 1t is con-
coded that some benefit would be certain
to accrue therefrom, but it would not be
sufficient to warrant the outlay, while
the same amount in any home newspa-
per would return handsome profit.
A STRIKING EXAMPLE.
The influence of local advertising and
soliciting trade through the home papers
OF consumers was shown in remarkab BILE
manner on Sunday, December 4, 1898,
when the New York Sunday Recorder
printed ten more columns of ADVERTISE
ments than the wonderful New York
Sunday World of the same day. The
Sunday World has almost three times
the circulation of the Recorder, but its
circulation is national, its main territory
being all the Atlantic States; whereas,
the Recorder is more or less restricted in
its circulation to New York city and i'm
mediate vicinity. New York dealers
rely largely upon trade at home, and
therefore they displayed their wares in
q home paper.
This principle is recognized by all the
large advertisers and by the leading ad-
vertising agencies in peculiarly strik- |
ing manner. The smaller the circulation |
OF paper the higher proportionate rate |
Is allowed it. The reason is that because |
the smaller the circulation the more GER
tain 1t is to be confined to home. 1t will |
cover its immediate territory more thor |
oughly than a paper with larger circu-
lation, reaching beyond the trade limits
OF the dealers at the point of publica-
ton.
REASONABLE ILLUSTRATION.
Take a metropolitan daily that has,
say, several hundred circulation in this
place. Would it not pay any dry-goods
dealer or jeweler of the big city better
were that several hundred circulated in
and near the point of publication? That
a nd fu
evident, and is carried on the very face
of the proposition. Now, take an article
that is of more or less general sale, and
is also advertised here; does the the adj
vertisement of that article in the several
hundred copies of the metropolitan pa
per, circulating here, benefit the adyer-
tiser any or one-tenth as much as it
would were those copies taken in the
home territory.
Experience is usually the correct ex-
ponent of true theory, and the experi-
ence that advertising in ones home pa
per is the cheapest and best way to Sc
cure his patronage has produced the
theory of advertisers that higher
prices pro rata for local circulation are
cheaper than lower prices pro rata for
larger circulation that goes beyond the
territory OF the home dealers,
The country weekly with 500 circula-
lion covers its territory more thoroughly
and is -proportionately far more valu-
sble advertising medium than the metro
Dolitan daily or the great magazine, each
with many thousands of general extra
territorial circulation.
The metropolitan dailies may enunci-
ate the proper public policies. but it is
The country weeklies that deliver the
rue political gospel to the vast voting
masses. Eminent political leaders NAV
Ilve the note OF the campaign but it is
he country district workers that carry
ha nloatinn Mou,r.otk ....l.ss |