Arizona republican., 1919-02-23
Training for Publicity

Training for Publicity
 Every theological student said Dr. Reisner of Grace Methodist Episcopal church of New York at Denver last Friday night should have at least three 'months' newspaper training he will know how to get publicity for his church" Passing the brevty ,or Inc period of training for what learn of any phase of the newspaper in three months h absolutely negligible. if it is not preceded fol- lowed by other training Dr. Rcisner may say. is the right track far the prosperity of the church is conccned. Rather he has returned 10 the 2 right track which followed by al least of the apostles in the process of establishing Christianity. q We recall perhaps with some inaccuracy of 2 language % part of a we learned boy when committing sections of the Bible memory little .tchets which subsequently exchanged for larger ones and which were in turn exchanged for picture or 70 book the ultimate reward flor these fcats of memorzins. From this enterprise have salva-ed some by products among which was a question. asked believe by apostle. How shall they Ohe people the heathen), hear except they have preacher" There were no newspapers in those days this pro- sressivc apostle would have inquired further How shah they hear tho preacher unless they have been told about him through the press?"
 Many the foremost churches in the larger cities within thc last dozen years have become paving patrons of the newspapers, They have been taking display space just tho business man does In their estimates of yearly expenses they include the item of advertising and in consequence. such progressive churches prosper The people having heard about the preachers go hear them they go to hear the music for that has also been advertised; they go 10 sit in thc comfortable pews which have also been described n Che advertisement along with other pleasing physi- cal features of the church. The rest is up to the preacher. Tho advertisements and the newspapers have discharged their functions.
  Rcsner that when he advocates the education Of tfc theological students in the science Of publicity. he to add 10 the ranks of the free publicity agents We have too many space hounds already. For some years they multiplied like cooties but the newspapers within the last few have invented an insccticde that is keeping them down somewhat. It has got SO that the space hound has a hard row to hoe in metropolitan journalism. City and news editors and reporters have also been undergoing special training SO that they detect the handwork of the space hound' or the propasandist in the most sbnfuuy prepared apparent story and they pass these artists along to the business office which they had sdc-steppod on Inc way in.
 Within the last two years thanks to the war and Awe suppose should also give some credit 10 the kaiser. newspaper people have learned 10 ditch free epubiicty and propagandist literature by wholesale Nwithout qualm the fckerng Of an eyelid IL is at Ionce detected as junk and treated. So slfuI have editors become that they generally can detect it with out removing it from the oontaner and are so spared | the time and trouble of opening the envelope And after all the propagandists themselves have been real ty served If all the they try get into tho papers were printed the people would be sicSened of them iA A good rule. subject. of course to some excep- tons and notifications is this: A news story which an outsider is especially desirous of getting into paper is story Of no value to the newspapers tecause it will be Of no interest to a considerable number Of it's readers IL is Of concern only ssfo the man who offers it 10 a small group of his fway of thinking and all the members of this group B. tlrcady know all about it It therefore needs no mpubicity.
 lt used to be thing for vox Populi o drop into the newspaper office and condescendng- fsy hand to the editor manuscript adding gracious y. 'I thought you might need this for a filler" All Inc time the editor deeply perplexed over hc lack of capacity Of his wastepaper basket than he vas over prospective vacancies in his forms"
 There IS not in the whole United States a news paper worth continental that needs "fersr if ever such need really felt There is not a newspaper that would fail of publication if 'vox Popul~ ~E i1urious unum," "A Constant Reader" and the rest 'f that well meaning but miscomprehendng family were suddenly gathered to their fathers On the con rary the tasks of the newspaper folks would be greatly smpfed and the wastepaper baskets would ,u less ot figure in the overhead expenses of the newspaper
 All newspapers would gladly give as a contribu-
 ion to worthy cause reasonable volume of space for church news announcements or for any worthy social or sociological movements in which a fairly large number of it's constituents arc interested Such matters are in certain way news perhaps not always ht thrilling interest but nevertheless they come under the head of news. But the great bulk of propaganda rstuff. though may be of importance whether it be ttIHfional state or local Is news and the propa