Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-08-07
WHAI MAKES AN EXPOSITION PAY?

Following upon two months of slim
attendance the management of the
Jamestown exposition has discovered
that the trouble all lay in their own
neglect to advertise their show. In
this day of universal advertising. Of
ALADDIN like fortunes made in adver-
Using, it is strange that it should re-
quire the lesson of failure to teach
any set of men the value and absolute
necessity of advertising, but such was
the case at Jamestown. They began
tendance is growing every day.
The jamestown people did not exact
ly overlook the necessity for publicity
but they committed the common error
of believing that the newspapers would
exploit their show free of charge and
many a ton of good copy was fur
nished to the press with full permits
sion to publish The newspapers of to-
day, however, have acquired COM
mercial perception. Those that failed
to acquire it have failed to pay their
bills The cost of producing news
paper averages just twice the price at
which it is sold to the subscriber. That
is if the subscriber pays S. per year
for his favorite paper. under normal
conditions 1t will cost the publisher
just $40 per year per subscriber to
produce a newspaper that will COM
mand IS subscription price. Like
wise with the paper that sells for 50
per year, it will cost s4 to produce.
The difference must be paid by the
Now, few people would ever expect
a publisher to send them several hum
bred copies Of his paper free of charge,
but people Of every class and condition
will ask for hundreds of dollars worth
of publicity free of charge and wonder
at the greed of publisher who is in
clined to guard his advertising with
CAREFUL RUE lOI Cash. hey uO Hul
think Of the obligation which every
publisher assumes to sell S. worth Of
advertising every time subscriber
takes his paper for a year and to sell
$4,000 worth Of advertising every time
1000 subscribers take paper. They
think that the newspaper is going to
come out anyway and space might
just as we'll be devoted to advertising
their schemes as to printing news.
However. the business world is
learning. For years the railroads have
been buying newspaper advertising on
the trade plan and while millions Of
it have been used, little or no care
has been exercised in directing its use
to the best advantage. The smallest
medicine house has had a better
equipped advertising department than
the great trunk lines. At the begin
ming of this year the railroads were
thrown upon a cash basis for their adj |
and they were not prepared
for It, AS might be expected they
were parsimonious and boards Of di-
rectors could not face cash appropria-
tons for advertising with equinimity |
But six months have been sufficient to
teach them and now it is announced
that the Hartman lines will aban-
Ion their pamphlets and spend s2,0O0,-
)00 in newspaper advertising.
What the merchant prince in the city
1as learned is gradually reaching. the
radesmen in small towns What made
3arnum and the Ringlings is going
o be used to make expostons pay.
What is universally endorsed by the
biscuit trust, the tobacco trust and
he great business kings of a hundred
ines is being adopted by the railroad
nagnates. They are learning what
". L. Douglass says he has learned:
hat everybody reads the newspapers,
md they are going to advertise.
"PROPER CONCEPTION OF DUTY.