Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-01-09
THE DEMAND FOR PUBLICITY:

II il an age Of press agents, as every news
paper editor knows to his sorrow. For many
wears the newspaper publisher has had expert
ence with press agenting organizations VINO
sought to interest the public in their SHOWS
But nowadays religious organizations, cnarl1aole
organizations, political organizations, CIVIC OF
oanizations. commercial organizations, clty
hoost;no organizations and pretty near every or
eanization with selfish or unsel1lsn puipose'
seeks to get the public talking ABOUT l. aiu 80
purposes through articles in the paper, "nlon
they generally try to get printed free. 10 pc,
suade the editor to give away his puDllclty s.,u
grind their particular axes they employ Ais,
sa,aried nress agents. They do not gruoge the
money snent on those individuals or their ex-
nense accounts, if they are only success1ui II,
nersuadinp the press to give them the oesireo
nnh1icitv for nothing. It is cheaper TO pay
nress agent fancy salary than to pay aoVerlis-
;no rates to the publisher, so we don't blame tne
organizations that resort to this form OF graz
mo the publishers. We blame the publishers TOR
being such easy marks.
The average press agent is not very squeamlsn
over the methods he adopts to gain tne oeslieo
publicity for his client so that ne makes gooo oy
oe+tinp il without cost. Press agents LUZ
actresses and shows have been noted TOR the raw
stories they sought to delude the newspaper eol-
tors and the public with in order to get theif
clients talked about. They are often "llllhg W
orive nut a scandalous story about their cllent
that has no truth in it in order to OBTAIN the
coveted publicity In the report OF the repupll-
ran women's meeting with the national republl-
can committee the other day the Associated
Press carried without comment a statement TO
the effect that the leaders were instructed IN
tho most efficient methods of making democratic
naners print republican propaganda for them.
M lioht was cast on the methods recommended,
but we will bet cent it did not include paying
for the space used for that purpose
The other day the chamber Of commerce OF
Los Angeles sent out an item about whales mllk
that got good run. Even the New YORK INES
fen for it and printed this item of news:
'sFor many years goats milk has been used as
q substitute for cows milk in regions where the
forage for cattle was scarce but new substitute
for these has recently been introduced on the
Pacific coast in the form Of whales milk. test
of this milk was made at banquet at one OF the
LODGES in Los Angeles, and it was found to pe SO
satisfactory that Captain John B. Loop, Whaler
at Long Beach, who has been supplying cuts OF
whale meat to some Of the leading hotels ana
restaurants on the coast for more than year,
has received request for permanent supply OF
whales milk. In his opinion the milk OF the
whale is richer and more palatable than that OF
the COW, and he expects it to prove successful
substitute If the demand for the milk OF the
sea mammal continues and appears to be perma-
nent. it is understood that Captain Loop Will
,h+o;r . number of cow whales and establish a
dairy for milk producing purposes"
Just how Captain Loop was going to corral MS
whales and milk them twice day the ingenious
press agent of the Los Angeles board OF trade
did not say But he and Captain Loop got the
loon over good bunch of publicity with this
silly story just the same, and maybe he made
the name Of Los Angeles known to simple folks
who did not know much about that much-adver-
tised city with his whale-milk story.
But to speak seriously, this press agentlng
business is betting to be greatly overdone, and
we look to see the time when the press agents
will no longer be able to earn their salaries be-
cause editors and publishers will decline to be
victimized by them. Already we think it is a
safe estimate to say that 80 per cent Of this kind
of stuff that burdens the newspaper mail box
gets dumped in waste baskets, and it will not be
long before the other 10 per cent follows the
same route. The personal solicitor Of publicity
is little harder problem to handle, but in self
protection they also will soon have it borne il
on them that they are not popular in the edl
torial rooms News is always welcome IN a news
paper office, if it is news, but propaganda stuff
seldom has much of that quality in it.
LOWER TAXES COMING