Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1917-09-06
time TO PUT BAN
ON FREE NOTICE DOPE
Practice Of Asking For Space
Gratis To Be Discouraged
SCHEMES ARE MANY
Offenders Of Newspaper Proprieties In
clude ALI Classes Of Supposed
commoa Sense People

tendency to make a newspaper mar
ashamed of his calling it is the fire.
quent calls for free advertising space
that come to him from people who
would not think of asking the butcher
the barber, the baker, the doctor Oh
the banker to do work for them free
of charge The fact that big firms
persist in asking free space, and that
they have expensive publicity organi.
cations in their establishments to be-
guile the press into giving this free
service is evidence of itself that some
papers do print the stuff free, and il
is because of them that the self-re-
specting newspaper man must feel a
just shame in his calling.
Scheme of Auto Makers.
On the desk at this writing is a
communication no doubt intended for
the attention only of the agents of
well-known make of automobiles,
1t came to the office along with the
monthly bunch of advertising proofs
| that are sent to both dealers and
newspapers. 1t was no doubt the in
tention to detach this sheet before il
reached the newspaper Office But it
is here, and newspaper publishers are
invited to take a look at it. Ii fol-
lows:
AT one time we sent out copies OF
our publicity stories to about 5000
newspapers-proba the papers in
h0f n,,1x
$50 papers are receiving our publicity
service new We are also publishing
these stories in the Starter, with the
request that you use them in your
home papers. We believe that you
can get better results. You probably
know Pete Perkins, editor or pub
fishers of your hometown paper
you probably know him by his first
name If you don't you ought tol
knowing him personally, you can
give him the story of the trip Bob
Hawkins made in his Underground
roadster, or the story of the Billy
Day limousine you just sold to your
banler--or else it may be typewrit-
ten copy of that publicity story which
appeared on the back page of this
weeks Starter. Well, anyway, you
can take the story to Perkins--nand
it to him and say: Pete, here's lit
tie story for you. I'd appreciate it
if you'd find room for it tomorrow.
Perkins, knowing you as a prominent
business man of the town, and alsC
one of the largest local advertisers,
as well as a very good friend, re-
spends: Glad to do it for you,
Sam Well give it a good spread.
And you get a good story in the
paper, properly displayed"
Attempt to Force Papers.
Just such dope as the above is be-
ing sent to half or more of the au-
tomobile agents in the country, es-
pecially in the smaller towns The
manufacturers are doing all in their
power to force the newspapers TO use
it. Not long ago one agent showed
stories printed in metropolitan
paper that were sent to him by his
house with the information that they
were run free. OF course, to one fa-
miliar with the game, it was clearly
apparent that the big paper had
either received pay for the story, or
that ii had charged enough extra for
some display advertising in the same
issue to Offset the price of the story
for stockholders in big papers have a
way of wanting them to at least pay
expenses, if not dividends. But il
was hard to convince the local agent
especially when he did not want to
be convinced, that the story was COM
mercial and should pay its way. To
any argument of good business pro-
priety that might be presented, he
would reply: But other papers are
doing it"
on the other hand, another local
agent for a reliable brand of cars q
few days ago told this Office of his
firm sending him free matter and ask
ing him to use il. He was square
enough to say that he did not think
ii would be good business for any
paper to print the stuff free, and that
he had written the advertising de-
partment of his firm that he would
not even present the matter 10 the
newspapers. But where there is one
like this there are a dozen of the
other kind BY making it necessary
for the paper to refuse the unwar.
ranted requests for free space the
advertising department is throwing
bar in the way of the local agent
using the advertising space that he
should use, by the ever present lit
tie feeling of resentment that alway.
follows when a request for ia
vor" has been refused. no matter how
justly.
But the big automobile men have
some queer ways of looking at things
Not very lcng ago the general man
ager of one of the four leading auto
mobile companies of the country wa:
heard in a speech to cry out in pro
test because periodical that had in
creased its circulation from three
quarters of a million to million ant
a quarter had increased its advertis
ing rate. In his indignation he cried
cut. And they have not increased the