The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 1913-01-23
s 4 advertising Rates
stI. D u Country Nv eklies''
Continued from Paee six,

H1ym0utS 10 Correspondence ana q
proportion Of the salary roll has.
ed on figures from the cost sheets.
All other items Of expense are
charged against advertising in
come. This does not mean that
The advertiser bears the upkeep
o.. the job, printing department
Tor to arrive ct the weekly cost
Of issue it is our practice to treat
each issue Of the paper as though
e were q job against which every
Item Of time or other expenSe
II charged just as though it were
done Tor someone else. Then. as
nearly as possible, the gross rev.
enue for each week, advertisins
and subscription, is recorded and
tne expense compared to see IL
the job has been q profitable one.
We assume that II this shows q
reasonable profit for the week our
rate is right from the counting
house viewpoint. II not, it Is
likely that the rate is too low.
But there is another view
point. Conditions might prevail
that make the cost of production
% high that with q profit added
the rate would be unfair to the
advertiser. Circulation and SER
vice would not warrant the price
asked. Then, what IL wrong?
~ might be one or more Of many
things. Perhaps you have an ad
man like one I once knew who de.
voted 81 worth of time to 81 worth
Of Advertising; perhaps you have
good help so far as their inten-
u
but you have not aided them to
reduce their work to 9 system-
alto basis; or, they are handicap
ped by q shortage Of material
SO that much time is lost because
OF search for sorts, scarcity Of
leads, lack OF proper tools with
which to quickly and properly do
the work at hand; perhaps It Is
cramped quarters or such an ar
rangement Of the shop that the
ad compositor is always doing
9 Marathon from place to place
in gathering his materials. II it
is any Of these things or what
ever else it may be, discover the
fault and remedy, it. II there was
q leak in your water tank you
would find it and mend it. How
about he leak in, the cash box?
without departing from the
proposition that rate per inch for
advertising space Is relative to
cost of production and the SER
vice rendered it is safe to say that
within state like ours, where
c0nitiOns are very similar in one
town or one section to those in
! enother Of like size, papers of
like circulation, properly equip->
ped and managed, will show prac-
tically the same cost of prOdutiOn.
Rentals, cost Of insurance and q
few other items may operate to
make slight differences in over
head charges but the variation
will not be great. Yet we hear
one publisher say that he can
make money running electrotyped
fOreign ads at six cents an inch
and another claim that anything
less than rs cents per inch would
leave him on the toboggan slide
down poverty row.
I'm Bottineau County, where
the ten papers have formed q
county association, there are two
papers charging 10 cents per COL
umh inch for display advertise
ments. The othes charge is
cents per inch. These are not
fiat rates. The two charging IS
cents sell space as low as Is cents
on yearly contracts and the others
cents per inch and I believe all
OF these papers are making some
money. I do not say that these
are the proper rates but they are
higher than formerly and if there
10 any change made it will neces-
sarily be upward. There is with
US, as we'll as in other parts of
the state, wide difference Of
opinion in regard to local read
ers.' It is my opinion that these
cannot be handled at profit for
five cents q line nor for ten cents
for the first insertion and five
cents for subsequent insertions
and I have, therefore, fixed a rate
Of ten cents per line for each in
sertfon for locals or reading
notices. but for classified ads q
charge Of five cents per line for
each insertion. The more than
one time local requires extra
labor in checking, extra handling
in distribution and has a special
value because of position. The
classified ad, with a minimum
price fixed, collected for in ad-
vance for all small items or from
occasional customers, can be
handled more cheaply.
Under the plan of the Botti-
neau County Association preferr-
ed position is given for IS per
cent additional and this applies
to either local or foreign adver-
tisements. The reason is obvious
You sacrifice control of space and
. add difficulties in makeup in this
osition contract. It is, there
fore, worth more money. The
customer has a position for pre-
ferring q cetain position. It has
special value to him and he
would be unreasonable il he did
would be unreasonable if he did
not expect to pay a higher rate.
s'Our rates to foreign avertis-
ers are the same as at home ex-