The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1899-09-01
Free Advertising.

Nearly everybody expects their local
newspaper to boom the town in which it
is published, boom every business in the
town, boom every entertainment public
or private, give space freely to get before
the public information concerning every
theatrical or musical performance, claim
ing the right to dictate quantity, and
when all this is obtained they expect the
publisher and all his employees to attend
the performance he has 50 we'll doomed,
and all this is based on the simple fact
that few circulars have been printed
and paid for, the profits on which quite
often falls below the value of the free
advertising obtained, let alone the ex-
pense of attending the show. Are other
business men called upon to do similar
gratuitious work? Do people 60 to the
merchant and buy dollars worth of
sugar and ask the merchant to throw in
fifty cents worth of soap? Do they go
to the blacksmith shop and after getting
their horse shod ask the smith to throw
in plowshare? Do they 60 to mill and
after paying for sack of flour ask the
miller to throw in bag Of cornmeal?
Do they go to the hardware man and
after paying for a stove ask him to do
nate the pipe and two or three extra
dish kettles? No! They claim no right
to thus draw on the stock and resources
of any tradesmen, but they forget that
the newspaper is the proprietor's farm,
his store, his dependence, his property
and it's columns as valuable to him as
the merchants goods are to him, or the
manufacturer products are to him, and
to be deprived Of his space is as much
loss to him as it would be for other
business men to donate something of
value with every sale they make. News
paper men all have to listen to COM
plants Of their lack of liberality in ad-
vertising local entertainments, and some
times tart complaints at that when often
the very case complained of has cost the
publisher more than it has come to- on
account of his liberality. They are told
that a certain amount of circulars and
printing was paid for etc., and an exami-
nation Of the case. proves that the free
advertising was worth more than all the
profits of the work paid for. Some COM
plants have led US to make some inves-
LEGATIONS and we find that in many cases
all the profits we have made for printing
circulars and for paid ads have been
more than balanced by the free adver-
Using we have given IL local puff. Ball
gaines, COuC6IGS, CuurCll entertainments,
run for profits, all of them business ven
lures, expect the same generous treat
ment and good writeup afterwards,
and, in many cases the promoters do not
even drop one complimentary for the
publisher to send man to spend his
time to see the thing so that he can
know what to write about it and yet he
is expected to do it up in fine shape
whether it is worth seeing or not and to
speak of it in terms of laudation whether
he tells the truth in so doing or not.
Business men who run paid ads the
year around do not do this way; if they
have additional local ads they pay for
them on business principals, asking for
no gratuity, and receiving none except
occasionally few lines calling attention
to their ads, and spend no time complain
space for their benefit. To notice every
entertainment as matter of news is
legitimate and no more than is due from
the publisher either to individuals or
societies, and whatever goes beyond that
is free advertising for the benefit of
others without any benefit to the owner
of the paper. Certainly there is large
room for reform in this matter and the
reformation is demanded by large ma
jority of newspaper patrons who declare
they are tired of reading locals repeated
over and over again in praise of some
thing in which they are not interested
to the exclusion of real news items.-Ex.