Milford chronicle., 1920-12-31
NEWSPAPERS HIT HARD
THE BUSINESS is STAGGERING UNDER
INCREASED COST OF PRODUCTION.

Newspaper rates were forced vi
during the war by astounding increas-
es in the cost of labor and materials
and the peak has not been reached, for
in newsprint alone newspapers face
an increase in 1921 over 1920 of more
than S75,000000.
Newspaper advertising rates, espec-
tally local department store rates,
have always been too low and they
are too low today when costs and haz-
ards and service are taken into con-
sideration. Advertising space in the
newspapers is the cheapest merchan-
dising commodity in the world. 1t is
the one great public service-or rath-
er public servant-that has come thru
the cyclonic times of the last half
dozen years without spot or blemish
/ The newspaper publisher did not
profiteer, has not been in any sense
party to imitation and, therefore, in
this critical period of the downward
trend he has neither sins of omission
or commission to answer for.
Speaking at the same gathering
John Sullivan, secvretary of the As
sociation of National Advertisers, said,
IF ever there was a time when men
must relieve themselves of illusions
it is in 1921" The first of the illusions
that must go is the theory that ad-
vertising costs nothing.
The fact that the trend of prices is
downward, that defiation is on at full
swing, can have no effect on newspa-
per advertising rates, however, for
the very simple reason that there has
been no imitation in newspaper adver-
tising rates. During the period that
general business was piling up re-
serves by pyramiding prices the news
paper business as a whole was fight
ing a battle for life by the practice
of economics and curtailment within
its own house.
Regardless of the propaganda with
which newspapers are now being
flooded in an effort to force advertis-
ing rates down, newspaper men must
remember that their first duty is in
essence that of a trustee of a public
service institution. Obviously, income
must be sufficient to fulfill that mis-
sion.
In 1921 business will need advertis-
ing more than ever before in its his
tory-it is the one steadying influence
to which business can turn during
the period of tangible trade results. I
was never before as nee I
essary to business as it is now. The /
wise business man knows this and the .
others will learn it before the new
year is three months old.
On an average 10000 business men
fail in the United States every year.
per cent. or 13,600 of these
failures are to be classed as non-ad-
vertisers. Only Is per cent of all fail
lres are among business men who are
advertisers. In other words honest
is the best guarantee that
business has against failure. AS re-
suit of recent survey Ben F. Bitter.
n Business Chat, says that SO per
cent of all the business houses in Am /
srica rated at St00,0 900 or more are
LIBERAL advertisers. d
Newspaper advertising is the great
,st mass salesman" in the world,
,ut it cannot be expected to do it all.
'irst, the merchandise must be hon
stly made and honestly priced; sec
nd. it must be truthfully and honest {
Y presented. {
1t is doubtful whether newspaper 1
dvertising rates are even now as high \
S they should be and consideration 7
f any kind of a proposition to low O
+ rates, in the face of rising costs ?
-ould be sheer folly-Editor and Ad- 1
ertiser. e