The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-05-15
From Yesterdays Minneapolis Times.
HOW TO SELL PAPERS.

rho Ct paul Globe has been showing UP
+ho i,Hation Of the poor old Pioneer Press
circulation to the taste of the most particular
advertiser who ever bought newspaper space
by the agate line.
Like all other people who had some Kno"i-
edge of the approximate circulation OF Inc
..oIdost and hest" the manager of The
Globe could not understand how war news
even as exciting as that which the Pioneer
dresses I'm to the extent of ninety seven
words of head to eighty-two words of news
(convrighted by James Gordon Bennett,
could raise circulation in a few days from
thirteen or fourteen thousand to somewhere
in the vicinity of forty thousand, rs claimed
by the general manager He consequently
put-on his thinking cap and remembered
that the Pioneer permits news agents to
count and get credit for all unsold copies.
Here was a cue. He forthwith sent his
men cut to visit few Of the news dealers
with instructions to buy up all unsold copies.
But the minions found the job more than
thew anticipated. From 4S out Of the 265
newsdealers in St. Paul. he secured two and
one-tbird tons of unsold papers, which means
o. coo copies.
These filled the largest dray that could
be found in the city and helped the man
ager of The o b e to comprehend the ire
mendous increase. AS newsdealers only
order about the number of papers they
actually need to meet the daily demand, as
they have little room to be numbered with
unsold papers, and as they dispose OF all I'M
sold copies as soon as possible, it is evident
that the Pioneer had been extremely liberal
in it's supply, to say the least.
But this is not all, as the manager Of
The G b will discover if the subject is
of sufficient interest to him to lead him to
pursue his investigations further. He would
find, for instance, that the Pioneers liber-
atty is not confined to the newsdealers of
St. Paul He would find that q free gift of
Pioneers is being made daily in Minneapolis
to the extent of at least thousand. He
the field covered by Twin City papers is get
ting free copy as proven by a printed
circular issued by the Pioneer. and the num-
her of operators in Wisconsin, Iowa, Mani
toba North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana,
Idaho, Washington and Oregon must run into
the thousands. He would find that every
postmaster in the same territory is being
offered commission of 40 per cent for all
subscriptions he gets, and the price of
the Pioneer-a 2-cent paper, by the way
is 8 a year, the management is actually
getting $3.50 a year for it's oldest and best -
If the manager pf The | @ b e was still in
terested, he would learn other things. too.
He would learnNthat the circulation OF the
Pioneer Press never reached q 900 but once,
and that was at the time that George Lord
was given command OF the circulation forces
and succeeded if putting. On 5000 new names
after years lkbor, and at a cost of about
900. He wSu.d learn that a year ago
when the general manager Of the Pioneer was
sending sworn statements of a circulation of
about 23,00O to newspaper directories, he re-
fused to become "a member of the Advertisers
Guarantee company IL the membership in
vowed the exaninatian of the actual circuIa-
ton; but he Offered 70 join and pay the fee
asked provided the guarantee company would
guarantee the fgures he gave without sub-
mitting the circulation to the trying ordeal
Ct an examination. And many other things
would the manaeer or The CT o e learn if
he cared to carry onVhis Investigations The
Times Is merely AMI interested and amused
onlooker, and submits these few suggestions
IN friendly spirit as the manager Of The
and withal something of q humorist.