The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-03-07
NEW YORK HERALD.
Methods and Cost of Making a Great
Daily-Two and q Half Millions a
Year From Adyertisino.

Dh1ly-1" anu u x1alI millions q
Year From Advertising.
The New York Herald prints it's cir
culation at 5ll 300, and while circula-
ton reports from whatsoever source
are properly discredited there is no real
eason to disbelieve the statement that
it prints halfa million copies daily. Its
rate of advertising implies a return ap-
proximating!for each page $500, and
that lis, in fact, the average. It's color
display advertisement runs to 81, 900 q
page, and its classified advertiser ent
pages average at the rate of $45Oa page.
However, its average is nine pages of
advertisements a day,.sand the average
returns at $500 a page indicates a year
ly evenue of over So, 500, 900.
This figure must be cut for the COM
missions, which are of course a direct
charge and in some cases amount to %
per cent. On the other hand, there is
q vast body of advertising of the CLASH
fed Kind which pays no commission.
Then there are indirect charges which
must be made-for example, in work
ing up and mainting special features
in advertising real estate, seaside re-
sorts, etc.
Nevertheless. the. figure of return for
advertising cuts close to $4,000. 900 a
year for the Herald alone. 1t prefers
not to do agency business and to solicit
advertise ments. only in the most legit-
innate. and conservative methods. Such
was once its custom, and it, conforms
to 1t yet in so far as the fierce COMPETE
ton of its rivals, the World and Jour-
nal-American, will permit. Neverthe-
less 1t pays the quoted rates of adver-
tising Commission and meets it's clients
as adroitly and as plainly az any of
the well established papers of the city.
The paper is sold at 8 cents, or $40
the year, to subscribers out of New
York, $l3.65 a year within the city,
the extra 1886 standing for postage
and applied to favor The. newspaper
dealers who handle it. It therefore
costs its city readers q little less to buy
1t at cents the daily issue and 5 cents
the Sunday issue than to subscribe for
1t and receive it in the mails. Taking
into consideration the ruling price Of
papers for the last five years., the Her.
aid has prohably.beenIable to live on it's
sales: That, of course, is a matter of
bookkeeping and. moreover, only
haoWh W l5 DIOpIltGOT.
1t is run upon a liberal but by no
means extravagant basis. and, popular
belief to the contrary, itnever INDUCED
in any wastefulness of money even in
its greatest and most curious exploits.
1t is now owned by a corporation form
ed for business reasons and represented
by ten shares of common stock, of
which James Gordon Bennett holds
seven and probaly owns the other
three, which are recorded in the pames
OFF. s.. Drone, lately the editor; w. c.
Relck, the managing director and act
ing president in Mr.. Benefits absence,
n Dulaney Rowland, the business
managers A valuation of the Herald
property upon these figures, with the
realty represented by its fine office and
location, might be estimated o the
capitalization of yearly return of
about SIS, 1000, 900. Buta newspapers
value is chiefly that flexible thing call
go public favor, which may linger or
depart and renders the successful con-
duet OF a great newspaper the supreme
test OF business acumen. It would be
safe to say that the Herald stands to-
oay as q property worth between
twenty and twenty-five millions, a f.
which renders its sale %prohibitive, be-
cause no sane business man would ev.
er emDark u an amount of capital
upoh the uncertain tenure of public ia
vor.
This does not imply that the Herald
could be bought for any sum. In 1881
Mr.. John Russell Young brought Mr.. |
Bennett from a group Of capitalists at
nose head was Henry Willard an offer
ofS7,5OO,OOo: At a later day the late
Eugene Kelly, the banker, acting for
English capitalists, proposed to pay
SS,7S0.OOO and it was John w. Mack. |
avs earnest wish to buy the paper at
al times and at almost any price. MI.
Bennett was Mr.. Mackay's associate in
the construction of the Commercial
cable, and the men never met that the
subject was not preached by Mr..
Mackay in good faith and treated by
MT. Bennet with derision. The late
MI. Gardner Rowland, manager of the
Herald and Benefits cousin is the au-
tnorltyy Tor the statement that these
three proffers were the only serious
ones made to buy the paper, although
scarcely a day passes that some pro-
posal.to purchase or butt in does not
come into the office from some source.
very little is known ofthe personal
1ty ofaMr. Bennett even by his subor-
climates in the nearest relations TO him.
He is, however, the p~ervading genius
OF d paper, and nothing is too trifing
10 secure bis interest that concerns it.
II the Westchester county reporter
gets beat in his district Bennett knows
1t and the reporter hears of it. Noline
OF special articles is taken for the Sun
DAY edition without bis approval, and
che executive officers in their depart
ments are only his voice and agent
The editorial page is cabled to him and
the subjects of the leading articles on
that page are indicated by him in ad.
vance of being written.
1t might be expected that with Ben
nett's accepted journalistic ability the
editorial page, having his careful sur
veillance, would cease to be the scoff
OF newspaper men, who rarely speak
OF 1t except to deride its lack of~literary
polish, its puerility in treatment and
the lack of appositeness in the subjects
treated: But the policy of the Herald
Is to follow public opinion, MOTTO form,
lead or direct it. Its aim is to tell the
news, get in procession with the ma
Jority and forge along to the front on
the current if it can. Sometimes it
TAX s a definite stand upon some i'm
portant question, but never until it has
worked out to its own satisfaction the
probable direction of popular feeling. |
For example, when it opposed the land
league campaign in this country. con-