The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1910-06-08
TIL PAPER

Reprinted from The Boston Journal
We have too many newspapers in Bos-
ton for the good of the newspapers them
selves. We have too many newspapers in
Boston for the good of the community.
Too many newspapers mean poorer news
papers; too May newspapers mean an
unnecessary burden on the people
When you buy a newspaper at one cent,
you think that that Is all you pay for 1t,
don't you? Well, you are wrong. You are
paying five cents for it, perhaps more
And when you buy a Sunday paper at five
cents, you think that that is all you pay
for it. Well. you are wrong. You are pay
ing twenty-five cents for 1t, and perhaps
more
You gay the difference between one cent
and five cents, and the difference between
five cents and twenty-five cents, in the food
you eat, the things you wear, and the
home in which YOU live. 1t is very easy
for us to fool ourselves. We do it right
along. Indirect taxation appeals to our
temperament. We think, if we think at
all, that the other fellow pays the hills.
But there Is nothing in this. We are Ium-
bugging ourselves.
There Is no p,oft in the circulation of
newspapers at one cent, or I might better
say at approximately half a cent. Allow
ing for the unsold copies that are re-
turned, and for the expenses attendant
upon handling the circulation, the net
revenue 20 tie Publisher on the average
-one-cent newspaper is well under half a
cent.
This does not begin TO pay for the
white paper, at its present cost 1t Is aP-
parent, then that it Is the advertisers
money that publishes the paper, and the
advertisers money is your money
The merchant Is only broker. He gets
what amounts to a commission on the
business he does. This is one way of
looking at it, and, in the final analysis
it is the right way to look at it. The mer-
chant no more runs a merchandising es-
Enlistment for himself than a news
paper-owrc- publishes a newspaper for
himself. Both run their respective con-
Germs for you
You can make a merchandising estab-
Rshment, or you can break it. You can
establish it in a day or Kill it in day,
Just as you can establish OF kill a news
paper in a day. 1t is your support, your
money, that makes it possible for either
to continue.
The money that the advertiser spends
in advertising is not his money. II rep
resents an additional charge on the goods
YOU buy. The merchant must make a GER
tain net profit in order to live. Failing
make such profit, he must close his shop.
If his advertising costs him one per cent.
on the total volume of his business, this
expense is expressed in the price of the
things YOU buy If his advertising costs
him five per cent, this expense is ex-
pressed in the price of the things you
buy 1t is inevitable that it should be so.
Boston has eleven daily newspapers.
This is half dozen too many If We had
only four or five, we should have better
newspapers, and at less cost to you. 1t
costs the merchant good deal more
money to reach the community through
eleven newspapers than it would cost him
through four or five newspapers, and as
the cost is increased to him it is in
creased to you. leu are the source Of his
income. You pay the bills in the end;
you Fay the freight.
You might reason from this that the
merchant should not advertise at all, but
that would not work out, because his
liked charges would be so great on a
small volume of business that he could
not compete in price with the man who
does advertise, and who, as result, does
the larger business. Advertising is to-