Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-03-11
This strange business caters to
peoples vanity and enterprise

people 8 vanity ana enterprise
A soc1ALIrE soldier about to go overseas was
IA making himself sick with ticklsh problem.
He couldn't go over without knowing what his wife
doing while he was gone. He was ashamed of his
doubts, but they we're there and what was he going
to do about them? Somebody suggested a press
clipping bureau Every week he got clippings from
society pages and Broadway columns He was over
joyed to find his wife leading innocent life.
Press clipping bureaus have made several-millon-
dollar business out of proving that the man who said
that nothing is deader than yesterdays newspaper
all wrong Today dozen large and several dozen
small bureaus fourshng Their fees average about
eight cents clipping If you're actress they mail
your sour notices if you're politician. they'll let
you see how THE Squedunk Daily" regards your
latest unsefsh effort in behalf of the people.
Bureaus Pay of
MANY business owes its success the work of the
bureaus man who makes pick proof locks gets his
prospective customers from news items about burg
laries furnished by clipping bureau. Similarly,
firm making check protectors follows up cases OF
check-raising and tombstone maker gets obituaries
Cartoonists and columnists often use clippings Of
their own work to check their syndicates Business
firms check the advertising of their competitors to
see how much and what they're doing. Even men
going overseas subscribe for clippings of their
favorite daily newspaper comics.
typical large bureau reads 5000 daily newspapers,
rs per cent of all the weekles. 1000 magazines and
journals 1t spends $4,000 year for publications.
Dozens of girl readers flip through the pages.
Marked papers go to cutters who slash them with
razor knives then paste each clipping on heading
Slip and send it along to sorers for classification.
Mailers get the clips and shoot them out to clients.
Men Don't Like II
IT TAKES about three months to break in a reader.
She's usually high-school graduate with photo
graphic memory. Men get bored too quickly, college
girls are too bright to remain content Each girl
reader has to remember 5000 names and subjects.
good one can hold onto 5000.
Sometimes the girls make mistakes. A story headed
"PARI-MUTUELs MILK GAMBLERS AT RACE TRACK has
been known to 60 to firm which wants all news about
milk A man named ''Levy'' has received stories
headed ''Tax Levy But that type is rare. Accu-
racy averages above IS per cent.
Clients may get any number of clips. million for
political party isn't unusual. One of the all-time
individual highs went to Lndbergh in 1927 in box
car Twenty thousand went abroad the Duke of
Windsor Wallis Simpson marriage. And when the
King and Queen came over for the Worlds Fair they
received 5000.
But the bureaus emphasize that they don't sell
clippings they sell service. As the perfect example,
they point to one client who subscribed and after
three months hadn't received a single clipping In
stead of being annoyed he was delighted Il had ex-
pected," he wrote Ito be named correspondent in a
divorce action No news is good news"
LAWRENCE n. GALLON