The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-05-21
WALL STREET PRESS
AGENTS FLOURISH
Publicity Has Grown to be Inn
portant Business
A YOUNG REPORTERS RISE
He Gave Up q Good Job, But He Is
Now Making Plenty of Money.
Many Kinks of Press
Agents.
A YOUNG REPORTERS RISE
From the New York Evening Post.

From the New York Evening Post.
There was a time, not so long ago,
when press agent meant merely the
noteriety expert of a theater or an actor
or actress. 1t was the duty of the pub
LEFTY producer to entrap the newspapers.
by fair means or foul, into printing items
containing the names of the play or player
employing him. IL he was ingenious, he
could unload "stories" by the score with
out showing his hand behind them, so
that the papers would print them without
suspecting until afterward that an ada
was hidden between the lines
The press agent of this original school
stf1l flourishes in greater quantity than
ever before, but no longer has he "a
monopoly of the title. Today the pub
lieity maker of whom one hears most
frequently is operating in Wall street.
He it is who covertly booms the new
corporation, sometimes even the indi-
vldual with ambition to become a ce-
lebrity. To him, IL one investigates, eau
be traced many of the sensational pub
LEGATIONS wherein are found such express
sions as ION the best authority it was
learned or From a thoroughly reliable
source" or 1T was said by one in a
position to know the facts"
Even more important than any anony-
nous purveyor of news items has the
financial press agent made himself. In
his advanced state within the last few
years, he has grown in many instances
to be the acknowledge talking" repre-
sentative of large interests, openly pro-
claimed as one employed to be inter-
viewed and to send Statements" to the
newspapers. As the PCT of large inter
ests have come to yfss,iTss the necessity
of more publicity they ave decided to
abandon the old methods and to admit
their need of newspaper representation by
employing openly a man trained to write
through whom they may express their
views or expose their arguments without
spending the time needed to receive many
individual reporters.
A typical story of a well known public.
itY agents rise to a position of impor
lance is that of young man who was
graduated from one of the big colleges
only a few years ago. For some time he
worked on New York newspapers and
his reputation was that OF a first rate
reporter. Finally, however. he decided
that working for a salary wasn't a
money making game" as he expressed it.
and he set about to make a business for
himself.
An Awakening.
At that time-t was since 19G0-there
were, of course. numerous press agents in
the financial district, some OF them sue
cessful, some working "in the dark and
other semiopenly, but the young reporter
came to the conclusion that none of them
had developed their work as systemati-
cally as they might have done.
"The way to make the game 60" he
said to his friends in talking over the
project, lis to establish a clientele, just
as does a lawyer or a DOCTOR"
He visited the office OF prominent
stock operator who knew him personally.
II want to be your press agent" he
said.
What in thunder do ! want with
press agent?' responded the man of af-
fairs. "Why, my ambition is to keep out
of newspaper columns, not to butt into
them"
But" began the reporter. you can't
keep out of print You might as we'll adj
nit that You are too busy to be inter-
viewed by twenty or thirty men day
and besides, you have grown so tired of
fakes and unfounded reports that you
decline to be interviewed even by one or
two
They talked 1t over, and the result was
mat lht TtHQiltI WdS tllDlDyeu 10 look
after the press work." connected with a
NEW corporation In which the operator
was Interested The salary was not large
but it was enough to pay board and rent
room. The reporter, with a serene CON
fidence I'm his ability TO expand, deliberate
ly abandoned a position In which he had
been earning thrice as much With all mis-
energy he devoted himself to the new
scheme.
From the start he adopted a policy of
candor He made no secret of the fact that
he represented the promoters of the cor
poration in question What he did was
TO see that. whenever any scandalous re-
port or damaging rumor was circulated
regarding his employers, there always
went into the newspaper offices an au-
thorzed interview giving the other side
of the matter and denying or qualifying
any accusations advanced
1t was not long before the man who
had engaged the press agent told few
of his friends about his experiment The
former reporter soon had more clients
He rented an office. Then still others came
to him and he moved into a larger Of
flee and employed an assistant. Today
he has a large establishment, and is MAX
Ing, they say. as much money as some
OF the men who pay him to talk for them.
Varied Aspects.
There are varied aspects of the adj
vanced press agents daily work. No two
jobs are exactly alike for him, no two
DAYS pass on the same schedule. He has
quite as much variety in his life as he
did when he was reporting a fire one day.
a murder on the newt and a bankruptcy
case on the third The difference Is that
he is working for himself.
I'm as much a newspaper man as
eyer he will tell you. I'll | were not
couldn't make a living. To be pub
LEFTY agent one must have served his
term as reporter or editor or both
Down here in Wall street there have
been plain business men who tried to do
the work of a press agent. but they never
succeed, for they don't know the game.
Either they go on the principle that they
can substitute the reporters-and that Is
ridiculous-or they fail to make their
news interesting"
The old theory. according to this press
agent. was that man or corporation
seeking space in the news columns was
obliged to rely upon friendship or else
discover some journalist less honest than
grasping While friends and graft
ers' are still to be found occasionally. he
declares the old method has practically
died The reason, as he expresses IT, is
that more college men are going into
ant