Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1920-02-18
Country Weeklies
(Rutland Heraldl

One Of the notable speeches made !
at the meeting of the Vermont press
association in Burlington was by |
CORTLAND Smith of the American !
Press association, representative of
over 5000 country newspapers.
According to Mr.. Smith the coun-
try weekly is the one indispensable
newspaper adjunct of our civilization,
both from the standpoint of commun-
| ity service and advertising.
"The country weekly he said, sis
the only genuine cash-in sales medi-
um through which the advertiser can
actually trace sales and see that the
advertising. is selling the goods"
As to service, Mr.. Smith said that
nothing in community could begin
to render the service to that commun-
ity that is rendered by the weekly
newspaper.
"There isn't merchant in that
community" said Mr.. Smith, "who
doesn't owe the country weekly more
than he can ever pay. His bills for
advertising and printing don't begin
to represent what he owes. Communi-
ties and merchants are actually made
by the newspapers and yet most coun-
try weeklies are just living and that's
all. Every country weekly ought to
make at least $4,000 year instead of
being up against it all the time"
Entirely apart from the business
aspect of the country weekly's prob
lens, it is a fact that every great
movement, political or social, owes a
tremendous impetus and power to the
country newspaper-in which term
| might now be included the country
, daily as well as the country weekly.
The weeklies, however, render a
special and particular service in some
towns where the dailies don't really
, penetrate. Vermont weekly newspa-
pers like the Island Pond Herald, the
North Troy Palladium, Groton Times,
Londonderry Sitter, Wilmington
: Times and the local editions of the
, Waterbury, Morrisville, Mortified,
Randolph, Essex junction and Yer
gennes newspapers are in very ac-
tive and genuine sense the outpoSts of
civilization. They hold aloft the
! represent real constructiveness and
torch of truth under conditions that
5 often real sacrifice.
!. Vermont and every state of scatter
!. ed populations, owe more to the week
f.; lies of the small towns than they are
!. apt to repay in the present genera
: ton. Often not even a respectable
!. living is the reward of such efforts.
and always, practically without ex-
ception, the country editor and coun-
try printer are the worst paid type of
skilled labor in their community.
!. Few people rea ize the value of the
! reiterated slogan in print, yet the big
{ fortunes made by advertisers in the
past are a standing tribute to the DO
tency of the repeated injunction
mostly in the columns of the country
weeklies. If the advertiser can sell
I his goods by iteration and reiteration
through such mediums, certainly then
the government can sell good citizen
: ship in the same way
! The Herald believes that the time is
coming when the menace of Bolshe-
I vlsm, of labor radicalism, of confisca-
: ton, of socialism, will be nullified, not
: only by the able and patriotic SER
q wee OF the country press as individ-
uals, but by means of well-considered
:. and effective publicity, sent out and
e paid Tor by the government as a mat
ter OF national insurance and inserted
:. in the country newspapers as the best
4 medium for accomplishing the ends
: of citizenship.
There Is no reason why the news
/ papers should do all such patriotic
: service free-although they do a lot
2 of it-and a plan for such national
advertising, using mostly the country
r weeklies and dailies, would tie things
. up for old-fashioned Americanism so
: tightly that the newer, more vicious
: isms would soon perish
More power to the country weekly
: and his coadjutor in citizenship, the
lcountry daily.