Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1895-09-26
ADS. IN STREET CARS
A BIG FORTUNE EXPENDED IN THE
BUSINESS EVERY YEAR.

An Important Feature With the Advertis-
ing Agencies Handsome Revenue For
the Street Car Companies- How the Cities
Rank AS Desirable Fields,
The yearly expenditure for street car ad-
vertising in the United States has grown
in five years from $500, 900 to So, 600, oJo
and Is constantly increasing.
The street car companies derive a hand
some revenue from the leasing Of their adj
vertising spaces. One corporation, con
trolling several good lines in "a neighbor-
ing city, receives annually $75, 900 from
this source, and over 500, 900 annually Is
paid for the advertising privileges Of the
Boston street cars. But Boston is deemed
by advertisers an exceptionally desirable
field for them. 1t Is indeed considered the
best city in the country from this point of
view, and Philadelphia ranks next. Chi
cago is third. Several factors enter into
the problem Of determining the hypothet-
ical value of either city or "a car line to
advertisers. The best line is that patron
lied most by obscrvant, intelligent Eng
lish reading passengers, who have money
to spend and are liberal in spending tin
brief, good average Americans and the
city in which those characteristics are dis
tnCtiVe Is in like manner held to be best.
Even in the several sections of city, there
is sharp discrimination exercised by the
experienced advCrtiSer-as for instance,
between the east and west sides Of New
York, the lattcr being deemed worth much
more than the former. In this case the
distinction does not imply that there is
less intelligence on the cast side, or that
hnpn iG nprhnnG a
proportion of tho passengers on car lines
east Of the Bowcry are foreigners, many of
whom do not read English, and who are
habitually frugal in their expenditures for
other things than what they deem the
nccessarics of existence.
AS u whole, New York does not rank
high in the category of the advertisers
choice and this is from two causes. In
tho first place, this city offers abundant
space everywhere on dead walls and bill
boards, for display advertising, which Is
not tho case now in compactly built up
Boston. There such convcnionces are to
be found only on the outskirts of the city
and in tho suburbs and the advertiser has,
outside the newspapers, no other means
than tho street cars of reaching tho public.
And, in the second place, it Is enormously
expensive to cover the street car advertis-
ing of New York. For 5000 one can put
u card in every street car in Boston and
keep it there for month. For similar
sum no can cover Philadelphia in like
manner But to put card In each New
York street car, including those on the
elevated railways, for month would cost
from ST. 500 to $4,000. Consequently adj
vortiscrs are generally in tho habit of max
ing contracts only covering certain speci-
fed lines of Now York cars and shifting
about from ono to another.
As q rule, all over the country tho adj
vcrtising privileges of street car lines arc
primarily leased to local SPECTATORS who
sublct tho spaces, so far as possible, to To-
cal advertisers. 1t Is seldom practicable
for them to fill moro than one-third, or at
most half of tho rs spaces In each car
by the exclusively local patronage they are
able to command. Then, rs they would
lose money by allowing the remaining
spaces to remain empty, they arc anxious
to lease on whatever terms they can get all
that arc left. 1t would be difficult, if not
impossible, for tho local Spectator in car
spaces to deal directly with the big general
advertisers, who are scattered all over tho
country and would not be bothered by u
multiplicity of small local contracts, the
faithful keeping of which they could in
nowiso DO assured Of Ho must, therefore,
seek an intermediary possessed of the cap
ital to buy his space, the courage to take
the risk of filling it, the influence to do SO
and the system to mako sure of getting all
tho service 1t contracts for. This Is tho
fold of corporation which now controls
all OF n great part Of tho advertising space
in II, $50 cars--ln Now England 1,551;
middle states 3,S07; southern states,
1,40t Pacific states 970; western states,
4, 3OG, and Canada, 222. Three-fourths of
those cars are ON trolley lines, and very
few In tho smallest and most remote places
are drawn by horses.
Some difficulty was, at the outset, on
oountcrod In tho concentration and sys-
tcmization of all these local folds for the
use of tho general advertiser, in conse-
qucnce of the various sizes of car spaces,
which ncccsstatod multiplicity of cards,
of diverse forms and dimensions. Now,
however, car builders have adopted u uni
form scale of IL card spaces, each II by 81
inches, which gives ample opportunity for
handsome display. And 1t Is Indicative of
the rapidity with which these handsome,
Dig lnnutrl cars IhNc hupIliHl'N tlioSc VI
older types that only about 9 per cent of
tho cars now In uso have the old spaces, 10
by "a inches. Iolcna Mon, still has an
exceptional dozen having the odd size of IL
by Is inches. This is II moro important
matter than might readily DO recognized,
since many of the cards now prepared for
street car display arc expensive litho or
zinc prints in oolors, artistically designed
In form, and balanced in tints and shades
to give as much effect as possible. To
mako them Of various sizes would impose
an almost prohibitive increase upon their
cost.
To have assurance that the cards of its
advertisers appear rs contracted for the
corporation referred to maintains agents
In l27 cities whose duty it Is to keep
watch upon the car service and mako fire.
Quent reports Of the most elaborate char
acter, setting forth every fact of possible
interest In full detail and with the incest
exactitudo, The number of each car upon
every line In which an advertisers card
appears, tho number of days it Is in serv-
Ice during the month, and tho number of
its runs day and number of passengers
carried, any omissions that may occur, the