The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-11-20
NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING

changed from an evening to a morn
ing paper with w. H. Crockett as
editor and Frank 7. Parsons as bust
ness manager the state press predict.
ed that they would get out a good
paper but the Banner at least did not
think it possible that they could pro
duce as creditable publication as
they have done. The Montpelier
Morning Journal, we believe to be,
the best morning newspaper printed
in New England in a town of not over
10000 population.
AS the only morning paper in all of
eastern Vermont the Journal has a
great opportunity if it gets proper
support at home, which, however, it
does not appear to be getting and
for which there seems to be a curious
reason-or rather lack of reason.
Years ago Montpelier was the center
OF trade for central Vermont includ-
ing about all of Washington and
Orange counties and considerable sec
tions of Caledonia, Lamoille and
Windsor counties. This has been the
most growing and prosperous part of
Vermont for the past twenty years
and now has a population of over
$4,000 people but Montpelier is no
longer its trading center.
The big end of the business is now
going to Barre and the reason is no
secret. Every newspaper publisher
in Vermont knows that Montpelier
merchants are mostly poor advertis-
ers and they have let the more hust-
ling Barre merchants take the bust
ness away from them Their failure
to take advantage of the opportunity
afforded them by the Morning Jour
nal is but another illustration. These
are public spirited and
would do almost anything for the
good of their town, but do not realize
the essential need. If a board OF
trade subscription paper were circu-
lated in Montpelier every one of them
would subscribe generosity, but they
fail to grasp the great truth that
hustling newspaper as good as the
Morning Journal if properly support
ed, can do their town more good than
three ordinary boards of trades.
Montpelier has a good evening
paper that is fairly well supported.
but the field for a morning paper
centrally located in a large and pros
porous country like central and east
ern Vermont is so much wider and so
different that the two do not
conflict in the least. If the Montpel-
Ter merchants had the foresight to
build up their newspapers the news
papers could widen their enterprise,
their circulation and Mont
Deier merchants would see their bus
mess steadily grow 1t can't be done
in day or a month, but it can un-
questlonably be done
Burlington is the great trading cen
ter of northern Vermont for the
simple reason that Burlington mer-
chants are the most extensive and
versatile advertisers in northern
Vermont. Barre stores are no better
than those of Montpelier but they get
more business because they are more
exploited. Montpelier
with two or three excep-
tons do not seem to know the first
of advertising. They are
too prone to put in a sort of business
card arrangement in a fixed location
in the papers instead of appealing
to all classes of readers by having
their advertisements printed at differ
ent times on all the different pages
and varying their space and methods
Of exploitation according to season
and stocks.
Newspaper advertising is an art
but no retail business anywhere is a