Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1915-01-14
ExPEcrED On NEWspApERs.
Thsy Are Imposed Upon by Those who
Expect Much for Nothing.

infant Metropolis0
A leading Miami citizen asked the
Metropolis for sixty Ioaves of bread
the other day. He was hungry.
No; the man did not ask for the
bread as bread but he wanted a 4lit-
tie writeup' on the front page. the
Wr1te-up took twelve lines and each
l i sa commodity valued at twenty
V cents a line, making equivalent,
of sixty loaves of bread.
And this one small instance is of
course but a dot in the long line of
charities that a newspaper is called
upon to perform by people who ought
to know better-by people who never
think of asking a merchant to give
them merchandise free of charge.
On yesterdays mail, for instance.
We received the following letter from
the Hotel Commissioner of Florida:
I am herewith enclosing you op-
en letter to the hotels and ~restaur-
ant keepers of the state, and beg
to ask you if it will be possible for
you to publish same as news item.
We. have no funds in this depart
ment that we can draw upon to
pay such expenses with; / am max
ing a hard and continual fight to
bring the hotels and restaurants up
to a higher standard than many oil
them have heretofore been, and if
you will help me in publication it
will certainly aid me very much, as
l find publication does more to-
ward making them as a whole try
to make improvements than almost
any other method / have so far
been able to devise.
publication does toward max
/ roVements'-this is of course true;
but did the legislators recognize this
fact when they appropriated money
for the up-keep of the hotel commits
zion? No; they provided sums for
the salaries of the men connected with
the department, for Office expenses,
travelling expenses and all the rest of
it but the publication part by which
the work of the department was to be
made really effective was left to the
charity of the state newspapers!
And in practically every branch of
business life it will be found that men
are seemingly unconscious of the fact
that space in his newspaper is the
only thing that the newspaper mau
has to sell: &c is his merchandise quite
certainly as are the goods that the
merchants keep on the shelves aud
sell over their counters
Without publicity few projects
would succeed; this is acknowledged
without argument and yet its value
is often not counted in the making ny
ofaexpense budget. A town decides
have a celebration; the business
InsR-of the townsare Called upon tnrs
contributions and they all giVe-ln-
Guiding the newspapers; the money
is put into a general fund for the. pay
rent of the cost Of the entertainment
and each man who contributed is
supposed to feel that his contribution
Settles him, up" with the committees.
an6 that this cominittee Will not come
to see him every day or so tor, adNI-
tional money.
Not SO with the newspaper man
He. gives his money and then he Is
asked to give a, thousand Or perhaps
ten thousand lines of boosting matter
to get the crowds to make the enter
taInment a success. In fact thero
would be no success without publicity
but is. that thousand lines liste1
among the contributions at twenty
five cents a line? One thousand lines
at twenty-five cents a line totals $3.50,
there any other man in town asked
to contribute a five thousand yards
bunting in addition to his cOntrlbu-
ticn to the committee7
1t is interesting enough to discuss
ali day. There are so many spec1hc
instances to cite. and so much to
at.
A church. decides to give an enter
tainment to raise funds for an organ.
The crowds must come or the enter
tainment will be a failure. The only
a to get the crowd is by publicity
so the newspapers are asked to CIV"
In the meanwhile the newspa-
per man contributes to the fund in
money like all the others do, bit OPP
his name on the honor role Is
record O.. the big contribution he
gave-line after line of publicity stun,
In space that he has to sell.
The city decided to advertise its at
fractions in a moving picture show.
The company is paid to take the pic
tire, and a home picture show man
displays the pictures, by which one
earnings-thanks entirely to
newspaper telling about the pro-
posed show-brings 500. Of this the
city $305 and the picture mar $500,
while the newspapers, that get the
crowds and were almost wholly re-
sponsible for the patronage at the
picture show that night get nothing.
Innumerable happenings like this
night be recalled; nor is it by any
a confined to entertainment Civ
ers. it seems that there are many
y.eople who imagine that they are
concerning a favor on the newspapers
by giving them a column of informa-
tion about some money-making pro-
Iect that is to be carried out "for the
good"
A real estate man intends to open
nc a sub-division-the newspaper
.JI Ill 4ho world ord nrOcnnoffV0 l