The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1923-11-16
MERCHANTS TALK TO THE
MAKERS OF NEWSPAPERS
Address By J. D. Steele, President of Petit
bone Peabody Company, Appleton, TO
Publishers Convention

/ Iiversd BY J. o. steele, of Petit
| bone Peabody company. general
merchants OF Appleton, WIS.,, to
q large convention Of daily news
paper publishers in Chicago, oc-
tober II, 1928, on the relation of
the two Industries represented,
| each to the other and ON topics
closely related:
l champion the principle that 1t is
better for a small city to have one
good newspaper rather than more
than one, no matter how good. I
wish my audience would understand
| that l am not a stakeholder in our
local newspaper nor interested in
any way financially in their enter
prise. Nor am + a beneficiary by
otssp ts 9f amy rates or
haps the largest individual advertiser
in our local paper. ~
In speaking for the preservation
or the status quo, I am hoping to
ward off inoipient competition in the
local newspaper field; not that |
have anything against a new paper
but because new paper will cost
my firm additional money. In short,
am here in self defense.
/ am actuated to speak here for
the Post Crescent because OF pres
sure on the most sensive nerve in
the human body-that nerve that
leads to the pocketbook.
In stating that / am satisfied with
the local situation, l wish to make
it clear that l am convinced that
the outlay we make for advertising.
using the medium Of the Post -Cres-
cent, gives us en- adequate coverage.
In short, the outlaws we make are
commensurate with the results at
tanned, which is the final definition
Of moneys worth in advertising.
do not want to go into a discus
| sion of the economic PRINCIPLES of
free competition and that there is
such thing as wasteful and uneco-
nomic competition. Such discus
sion would unavoidably be very long
drawn out. recognize that there
is such thing as beneficial compe-
| tition.
| regard a newspapers as a semi
lie utility field it is recognized that
unlicensed competition frequently
leads to higher prices. There is
about SO much service to be rendered
in a community by a public utility
and a publication of equipment and
facilities means that every consumer
must pay a higher unit price for
that service if the competition is
not licensed and regulated.
In the semi public utility field
also this high cost situation fire.
quently applies. Reviewing local
history, my hearers will recall the
days when we had two telephone
systems. The unit cost of each
telephone was less that the monopoly
that now operates charges us. But
all business houses and many resi-
dences were obliged to have both
telephones and the total cost was
above what we pay now, and the
service was less satisfactory.
In the local field we have but one
Ice company. The rates charged by
this ice company are frequently
protested. This protest arises be-
cause it is monopoly in effect. 1t is
the only ice company in the field.
But study Of rates charged for ice
in seven surrounding cities shows
for ice of them all, and this despite
the fact that some of our neighbor-
ing cities have as many as three ice
companies.
Now l feel that the newspaper
stands in somewhat the same rela-
ton to the user of it's advertising
space as do the ice company and the
telephone company to the public.
And we would make a mistake If We
as merchants, encouraged free com
petition in the newspaper field.
Granting that the local newspaper
Is live one, that it's circulation
adequately covers its field, that it's
policies are decent and progressive,
That ifd nnTGn11nn1 &c. fol I'D
that it recognizes it's responsibility
to the community, ! believe we as
advertisers, the group of people who
supply the sinews for any newspaper
would best let the situation any
where keep to a single newspaper,
or go back to one paper, as soon as
we can.
Now II there Is any overwhelming
sentiment that our local newspaper
Is wrong in it's conception Of its
duty toward the local public, then
let us get together and buy them out.
1t will take lot of money. But to
buy them out is the best, the cheap
est and the only wav as l see it to
cure any evil in the local newspaper
situation, If we must have any
changes at all. To start a competing
newspaper will require equipment
and an organization which takes
money and years of time to create.
A competing newspaper will be han
dicapped way beyond a competing
organization in the ordinary COM
mercial field. AS see It, newspaper
talent is peculiar thing not easily
available.
On an impulse, competing news
paper might be started here whose
foundation stone would be nothing
: but grudge. 1t seems to me that
a grudge is the most unstable foun-
dation on which any enterprise can
be based. Grudges do not last. A
I've newspaper organization strongly
7tTenched in its field has too much
lent to permit a grudge to be
ntinuous argument against it. An
~aniZation smart enough to COZ
t an adequate newspaper also he
means of allaying the grudge
flying the soreheads and correct
any mistakes which they mus
'!tably make.
l adequate newspaper organize
is just as much interested !
wing cause for legitimate crit
IS are its critics. The foun
on, therefore, of agrudge- incitad
spaper are continually subject
the changing currents Of public
ion and in my humble opinion a
3Tetitive newspaper thus con-
wed would be the most specula-
~ kind of business enterprise.
] must assume that periodic pro-
st against a newspaper which Ia
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