Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1922-02-23
Some of the Things You Expect From
It-And Some Things You
Often Forget.
The Real Cure for Retail Sales That
Are Growing Less Is More Ink,
Much More.

(By Rex Grover White, Editor Com
munity News Seryice.)
The local newspaper, ike the local
fire department, police department
and board of health, is accepted as an
institution by the American public
which must do it's work, serve all
interests, ignore danger, know no
sleep, accept abuse, be always polite.
It is looked upon as an institution that
must give its wares, i. e., its columns,
upon the slightest pretext to the aid
of any sort of movement having the
slightest tinge of charity, civic ad-
vancement, or social welfare. In the
same breath it is called upon 10 pro-
tect and destroy, to blow hct and
cold, to uphold the courts and to
watch them, to support church and
liberalism, to befriend the helpless
and uphold property rights, to be al
ways right and to be super-human in
it's swift gathering and presentation
of news Like the municipal depart
ments mentioned it receives few
thanks for doing its duty but bitter
attacks for the errors that, being but
of human energy, are sure to arise.
A Matter of Toll.
No one that has not been active in
the making of a newspaper has even
a faint idea of the toll and the energy
the sacrifice and the heart interest
that goes into every issue of every
daily paper in every city of America.
Few have any idea of the enormous
expense that must be met, of the
problems that arise from a clear sky
and must be settled without an in
stant's hesitation, problems, often,
whose wrong settlement might mean
fortune if not ruin. The daily pa
per is as near a living thing, pulsing,
warm, keenly alive, as any man-made
product can ever come, as delicate
as a web and as strong as steel cable.
Expecting all things of his news
paper the local business man gives,
as a rule, only what he must and the
newspaper is yet to be published
whose advertising department will
fail to hear grumble over its rates.
The fact that there is not an imme-
diate and tangible result from every
insertion is the base for ceaseless
mutterings and even advertisers Of
years whose whole business has risen
to success through printers ink are
prone to belittle the part played by
the local paper.
When Need Arises
But should matter arise wherein
the business man feels the need of
his paper, should his lodge or his club
or his church desire to give an enter
tainment, should his telephone bill be
too high, his street car too lacking
in seats, his treatment by the corner
policeman unkind, his milk too thin,
his children too little taught in
school his political party too DOR
mant-ah. Then he runs to his local
paper for support, for aid and COM
fort. Then he demands-and re-
ceives--its most valued asset, its
space.
"The public supports the paper, the
paper owes the public space" he
cries. But might he not remember
it is the public that supports him and
he would be aghast should the pub
lie come in and ask his goods from
his shelf without pay, no matter how
great the need or how fine the rea-
son. The church does not ask him
to give its pews or carpets, the poll
tician pays for his banners, the lodge
for its hall, the gas company for its
pipes.
A business depression settles down
The first to feel it is the newspaper,
for the average business man, unless
he is skilled advertiser of long
standing, cuts first at his advertising
appropriation. In other words, he
cuts away the greatest source of sup
ply of life blood for his ailing bust
ness. If times are hard" if money
is scarce surely it is obvious that it
will take more coaxing to d.raw it
from its hiding places. In every
other form of activity and industry
the greater the problem the greater
the energy expended to solve it
Why, then, does the average business
man in times of depression when his
sales are his greatest problem lower
the energy of attack, withdraw his
silent salesman from the newspaper
columns and sit back grumbling al
the present, sobbing for the past anc
crying but a faint optimism for the
future.
Buy More Space.
A sick man takes medicine to make
him well, we'll man takes exercise
to keep him we'll and to MAKE hin
even stronger and very sick MAJ
seeks the doctor, regardless of cost
A well business advertises to max
itself greater, sick business con
times To advertise until II ootS yor,