Evening star., 1903-08-01
ON HON O R.
By NJ. LEE STARK f

Printers Ink the champion of honor be
tween advertiser and publisher has 1nstl-
tuted another good movement, In many
respects the best yet. 1t publishes cacn
week "a Roll of Honor" where any pup
fisher, who is willing TO tell the truth, the
whole truth and nothing but the truth,
about the circulation of his paper and who
has submitted a detailed statement OF cir
culation, duly signed and dated, to the
American Newspaper Directory. may have
his publication enrolled and his circulation
figures placed before the leading advertis-
ers of the country every week, and at a
ridiculously low cost, considering the serv-
Ice rendered.
1t is positively refreshing, in the midst Of
such a wilderness of circulation liars, TO
see so many papers come out, uncover ana
state actual circulation. Any publisher may
well consider 1t an honor to receive an IN
vitation to join with honest publishers ana
have their publications listed on the Roii
of Honor" Personally, l think the adver-
tsers Of America owe the man who con
ceived this idea debt of lasting graft
tude The only change that | would sug-
sest Is that instead Of a. 1t be called
''l'he Roll of Honor
Quite a number Of advertisers. whom
have called upon lately, referred to the
Roll of Honor to see II the papers l rep
resent were among the honest ones which
leads to believe that the Roll of
Honor will very shortly become the hand
lest, most reliable and most useful refer
ence list for the average advertiser. l am
proud to say that the six papers of which
l manager Of the general advertising
departments. The Washington Star, The
Baltimore News the Indianapolis News,
Newark News, the Montrea! Star and the
Minneapolis Journal, are all eligible to the
Roll Of Honor In fact, ! would not rep
resent a paper, under any circumstances,
that refused to render detailed statement
OF its circulation when the bill for adver-
tising was rendered The advertiser has the
right to expect this just as much as he has
the right to expect an itemiZed bill from
a merchant for goods purchased.
Every dog has his day and the day OF
the circulation liar is passing I say many
thanks to George p. Rowell, to the editors
of the American Newspaper Directory and
to Printers Ink, who have done more to
force these liars to uncover than all other
Ieformcrs publications combined. May
they live to all honest publishers rep
resented on the Roll of Honor and in
the American Newspaper Directory and all
the dishonest ones out of business.
During recent conference | had with
one of the leading publishers of America,
he frankly admitted that there time
when he felt he could not afford to tell
the truth about his circulation. but that at
the present time, from purely business
STANDPOINT he could not afford to lie about
IT. His paper is now on Printers Ink g
'Ron of Honor When In doubt as to a
newspapers circulation I invariably refer
to the Roll of Honor or to the American n
Newspaper Directory. If it is not given
there in detail | get suspicious-there is
usually something wrong.
The advertiser has right in Justice
to his business, to purchase space in pub
iication that refuses to make a statement
as to the number of copies printed and de-
iiFeitu 10 su5Scrlbers. You may put it
down as an exact certainty that whenever
a publisher refuses to comply with the re-
qulrements which would entitle his publi-
cation to a place on the Roll of Honor
there Is something rotten in Denmark q"
brother publisher, come out OF the wilder
ness of circulation liars, uncover your Sc
CretS and state your actual circulation Get
on the "RON of Honor" Get in the lime
light of Printers Ink publicity and you will
crease your business
If your paper is Printers Inks "Roll
of Honor you Will be among honest pub
ltSherS, who are manly enough to state
Their actual circulation. whether it be 100
or 100 600, and 1t always pays to be in good
company. The publisher that won't un-
cover certainly has something to conceal
W hat is it? Smaller circulation than he tries
to make you believe his paper has Don't
let him deceive you any longer. Insist on
an itemized statement for goods delivered