Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1907-10-03
SPECIAL EDITIONS FOR
COUNTRY NEWSPAPERS
Ru Il. ", STRONG.

For some years 1t had been my am
bition to publish a special illustrated
number of a country weekly, and the
opportunity recently presented itself
in such rosy appearing manner that
I undertook the task. And am
pleased to report to the fraternity
| that while my assets are about 5000
less than when I began, my expert
ence is well worth the price, and
am thoroughly up to date in every
thing pertaining to special editions.
1t must be admitted that this loss
was due mainly to poor management
on my part. I should not acknowl-
edge this. perhaps, but will, for the
probable benefit Of those who may
desire to give the special edition"
idea consideration in the future. The
only excuse that l can give for my
loss is that I did not have time to
manage the affair myself.
A young chap, named Wright, and
hailing from Indiana, so he said,
! dropped into the Office one day with
a plan for special illustrated write
up Of the city, and, of course, was
an eager listener to his scheme, which
was simply this: He was to do all
| the soliciting, and to do the printing
on six-column, twclve-page illus
trated write-up. was to pay for all
material, excepting the cuts, and pub
lish the papers, after which they were
to be sold at ten cents copy, and
the money to be equally divided. 1t
was explicitly understood between us
that any one who wanted cuts should
! say for them.
On this basis, the young man
turned over orders to me for about
eight thousand papers. OF course,
that looked juicy. Four hundred dol
lars each, and my expenses would not
be over $500! Well, could not just
decide what I would do with the bal
ance unless l took trip to Europe
One big institution to which we
| gave whole page write-up ordered
5000 copies and we gave him a rate
of SIS thousand. When we had the
papers printed and were ready to de-
liver, the manager of this institution
baked on the price and | cut it to
five cents copy. He still baked.
cut 1t to three cents. He agreed to
take them. The rest of the papers be-
ing fairly well taken, l settled up
with my solicitor on this basis, giving
him half the amount of all accounts
which believed to be good. A day
passed and the institutions manager
didn't appear. l inquired what the
trouble was. He replied that the deal
he had been trying to work" had
fallen through" but if I could cut
the rate in two-or give him a one
and one-half cent rate--he would
take them off my hands l baked
and still have the papers. l learned
later that he had been trying to get
for sending out the papers as he
would have to pay for them. in order
ito advertise the town" | bloc ed
this game, as 1t might have smacked
of graft on my part
The farther went with the edition,
4
me as being humorous, | began col
lecting for half-tones, of which | had
eighty-one, the price of which was
over $3.50. / then discovered that
my solicitor from Indiana had told
many of the patrons that they need
not pay for them-"all they would
need to do would be to furnish the
picture" Here, then. the joke thick
ened!
When my solicitor delivered the
papers to subscribers, in various num-
bers, ranging from ten to five hun
dred, he was paid for many of them
at the time. Some insisted on paying
him, so allowed him to collect. Here
Is where the affair became genuinely
side-spltting. My little man col
lected some amounts which he did not
turn over to me. the highest amount
from any one firm being $40. had
previously settled with him, so he re-
ceived three halves on all those ac-
counts.
The reader must not get the i'm
preston that | am feeling bad over
this. however. AS l have stated,
regard 1t as joke. But the one
really .disagreeable feature of the
affair is yet to be related. l learned
after the edition had appeared that
had made lot of enemies-and they
were justly aggrieved-by giving toe
much prominence to some and not
enough to others, and inadvertently
emitting some altogether. Some old
subscribers even went so far as tc
come in and stop their paper"
l had done the best | could under
the circumstances. l had worked
two crews, night and day, for three
weeks, to get the edition out in good
shape, and supposed it would take
well, but it did not. The largest firm
in the city became angry because
had to cut their ad. down from half
page to six inches. double-column
He took only half the papers ht
agreed to take; and yet l CAV, NJ. {
good write-up.
The net upshot of the whole affair
Is that ! am not only a loser of tht
cash, but some of my regular Gus
toners have grievance against me
which it will be difficult to overcome
From all of which l am convinced
that any country newspaper man who
wants to published an illustrated
write-up should attend to the matter
himself, and not let an outsider in OF
the deal. This is true, not only from
a financial point of view, but from
another, namely: A stranger is no
equipped to write up the town ant
do it properly. Not being acquainted
with conditions, either in busines.