An Improved Method of Producing and Arranging Newspapers and other Publications, with Means Employed therein for Purposes of Advertisement.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 10th Dec., 1895-Accepted, 5th Dec., 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Method of Producing and Arranging Newspapers and
other Publications, with Means Employed therein for Purposes
of Advertisement.
We, BENJAMIN FRANCIS CONN COSTELLOE, of 33 Chancery Lane, London W.C.
Barrister-at-Law, and JOSEPH HENDERSON, of 22 St. Andrew Street Holborn,
London, E.C. Printer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to the production and arrangement of newspapers and
other publications, in certain particulars concerning advertisements, and consists in
the combination with detachable or removable coupons applied to some part of a
newspaper or publication, or to the cover or wrapper thereof, under a known system
of advertising (in which the said detachable coupons bear specific direct or indirect
information by which they may be made available to the possessor as a means to
obtain goods or personal benefits upon specially advantageous terms) of certain
specific means and devices, and their mode of arrangement on said newspaper,
publication, wrapper or cover as hereinafter described, for the purpose of giving
the best facility to the public in the use of the said coupons, the best advantage to
the advertisers and publishers in and of the said publications, and for the purpose
of avoiding fraud.
To carry out this invention, as one form of device, we employ a coupon bearing
upon its face in appropriate cases an express reference, not merely to a list or to
specific sellers by name list, but to a directory of sellers, who will honour the coupon
on presentation, either by allowing a discount, or by giving some other material
advantage, to be stated on the face of the coupon; and in combination therewith
we propose that all sellers contracting with the proprietors to honour such coupons,
shall, in consideration of their so contracting, have their names placed in a directory
to be embodied in the newspaper or publication to which the coupon is attached, so
that the said directory shall be arranged, first in geographical districts under
prominent geographical headings, and next in convenient groups of trades, under
sub-headings, printed in a different and also prominent type, the name and address
of each seller being printed concisely in type of about the same size as the names
in the Post Office London Directory, or in other like convenient type, and for this
purpose we propose in the case of newspapers or periodicals that in appropriate
cases the whole or the principal part of certain pages, shall, for the purpose of
carrying out the system aforesaid, be divided into narrow columns, and we further
propose that in appropriate cases such directory shall be confined to sellers of the
main articles of common household use, and shall be described on the coupon or
elsewhere as a 66
Housekeepers' Directory or by some like title. And, as an
alternative, and as a separate device, capable of being combined for the purposes
of the said system with some or all of the other devices herein described, we further
employ a list of sellers of a particular class, inserted beside or along with letter-
press in any part of the paper or publication, or placed as a border or in a frame-
work beside or round any illustration or artistic matter, or round any literary or
news matter, and in each such case a list or special directory, appropriate to the
literary or artistic matter with which it appears, should be selected for that special
position, and also separate coupons may, if desired, be inserted in different parts of
"

page_text: the paper in connection with artistic or literary matter, and such separate coupons
may, if desired, be made available only for specified appropriate kinds of articles to
be purchased.
We further employ as a separate device, capable of being combined for the
purposes of the said system with the other devices herein described, and by way of
combination with any of the last, mentioned specific kinds of directory, a vertical
space corresponding to one or more of the columns aforesaid on any page or a
horizontal space at the foot or middle or top of any page, or both may be devoted
to ordinary advertisements, or if desired preferentially to advertisements relating
to sellers whose names appear in the list or directory on the same page.
We further employ as a separate device capable of being combined for the
purposes of the said system, with other devices herein described and either with or
without the other combinations hereinbefore described a detachable or removable
coupon so placed that the back of it should have upon it some integral part of the
literary or other matter of the publication concerned, which is characteristic of or
distinctive of that particular issue, so that it shall be impossible for any person to
forge the coupons, at least until the whole of the contents of the issue are made
public. And for the same purpose as a separate device capable of being combined
with the others herein mentioned for the purposes of the system, we propose that
the coupons should be so placed as, to bear a distinctive water mark.
We further employ as a separate device capable of being combined for the
purposes of the said system with some of the other devices herein described, coupons
applied to the newspaper or other publication concerned merely by insertion
between any pages thereof, or by being otherwise given therewith without being
physically attached thereto, and that, the coupon may, if desired, be a sheet or slip
of paper or other like material, having itself some means or device upon it whereby,
without giving up or defacing the general contents of such sheet or slip, a sufficient
modification or mark may be made by the seller to whom it is presented, so as to
indicate that it has been honoured, and is not to be honoured again, as for example
by a margin or corner so perforated as to be easily detached, and we propose that,
if desired, the body of such coupon, may bear matters of independent interest or
value, such as for example an illustration or some other artistic or literary matter
of value to the possessor, or may bear a displayed advertisement, and in that case
we propose that on presentation of the coupon it may be banded to the seller so
that he may detach the detachable portion thereof or otherwise mark the coupon
as may be arranged as a sign that that specific coupon has been honoured and is
not to be so used again. Thereafter the body of the coupon, containing such
valuable matter as aforesaid, may either be restored to the purchaser or otherwise
dealt with as may have been contracted for with the publishers. And as a further
device by way of combination with the system as aforesaid, and with or without
any other of the matters herein described, we further propose that if desired the
contract between the publishers and the specific sellers, shall make a coupon
available more than once or for a specified number of times, or up to a specified
value or otherwise as may be arranged, and that the letterpress on the coupon and
the arrangements for cancelling or marking any coupon shall be modified
accordingly.
0
We further arrange as a separate device capable of being combined for the
purposes of the said system with any of the other devices herein described, that
without prejudice to the principle of the said system, whereby it is arranged that
the sellers whose names are to be published as contracting to honour coupons, shall
not be charged as advertisers are usually charged, for such advertisement of their
Dames, but as a device for combination therewith, the proprietors of the newspaper
or publication concerned may give a preference or prominence in the said list to
those firms who are willing in addition to the insertion of their names in such
directory as aforesaid to pay for a second advertisement in the usual way of
advertising either in the same publication or in some other publication of the same
publishers; that is to say, either by printing their names in a prominent position of

page_text: in prominent type, or in a different colour or by underlining or starring or
otherwise, or by limiting the total number of names, and making selection
accordingly.
We further arrange as a separate device capable of being combined for the
purposes of the said system with any of the other devices herein described that the.
publishers, without prejudice to the principle of the said system whereby it is
intended that the newspapers or publications concerned shall not be distributed
free, but shall be sold in the usual way of a publishing business, may nevertheless.
deal with such directory as aforesaid as a supplement to any newspaper or
publication to which the same belongs and with the coupons whereof it is to be
used, and may if and when they find it advantageous, circulate single copies or
large quartities of any such supplement free, aud that whether such supplement
shall contain only such directory as aforesaid or shall contain with such directory
other matter whether advertisements or literary or news or artistic or other
materials supplementary to the newspaper or publication which bears the coupon;
or conversely, that they may charge for such supplement, whether comprising only
the directory or comprising the directory or other matter as aforesaid, an
additional price over and above the newspaper or publication to which it.
belongs.
And we further employ as a separate device capable of being combined for the.
purposes of the said system with any of the other devices herein described a
directory as heroin described as well as a coupon or coupons relative thereto,
combined with or annexed as a supplement or otherwise to such publications as.
railway or other time tables intended to be sold in the usual way of business or to,
maps or general directories or guide books to be sold as aforesaid (with which in
particular we further as a special device combine lists of lodging houses or hotels
or places of amusement contracting to honour the coupons concerned) or to almanacs
or diaries or blotters and blotting pads or other like articles of stationery to be sold
as aforesaid, and in each case with or without a selection of the special class or
classes of sellers most appropriate to the publication or article concerned.
We further arrange as a separate device capable of being combined for the
purposes of the said system with any of the other devices herein described, that the
publishers of any newspaper or publication, using the system aforesaid, may prepare
such directories aforesaid or other lists for the purposes of the system in sections,
relating to different towns or counties or countries or other localities and may make
the coupons of any one newspaper or publication available for all or for any one
or more of such directories, and that they may arrange for the publication iv
combination with this system of separate local editions or varieties of any newspaper
or other such publication as aforesaid, as for example, by forwarding in the usual
manner from the central publishing place stereo-plates or printed sheets of general
matter, and arranging with their servants or agents or other persons in the locality
to add local matter, and combining the whole with such a local directory as
aforesaid, and with coupons locally limited or otherwise as may be arranged.
And we further arrange as a separate device capable of being combined for the
purposes of the said system with any of the other devices herein described, that the
coupons to be used for the system aforesaid shall be of such a nature that
the benefit to be derived by the purchaser on their presentation may in place of a
discount at an agreed rate be an agreed sum of money or goods to the value of an
agreed eum, or specific goods, subject if desired, to the making of purchases to an
agreed minimum amount for any other like benefit, or that in appropriate cases
the benefit arranged for the holder of a coupon or coupons may be of the nature of
admission free or at a reduced rate or under specially favourable conditions to any
exhibition or place of entertainment, or to any conveyance or to any pier or
enclosure or place, or any other benefit of the like nature; or may be the right to
obtain other services such as baths, hair-cutting, dentistry, or such other personal
or professional services as may be arranged at specially favourable rates or otherwise
on preferential terms or conditions.
;

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-.
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is :-
1st. In a system of advertisement by means of detachable coupons bearing
specific direct or indirect information by which they may be made available to the
possessor as a means to obtain goods or personal benefits upon specially advan-
tageous terms, the mode of production or arrangement of the printed or impres
matter of newspapers, publications, or wrappers, for use in combination with such
coupons, to give increased facility to the possessors of such coupons, and best
advantages to the advertisers and publishers of the said publications, substantially
as described.
2nd. In a system of advertisement by means of detachable coupons bearing
specific direct or indirect information by which they may be made available to the
possessor as a means to obtain goods or personal benefits upon specially advan-
tageous terms the combination with such coupons of specific means for identification
of the genuineness of such coupons, and for their cancelment by use, or by effluxion
of time, or by their specific prolongation as to utility to their possessor,
substantially as described.
3rd. In a system of advertisement by means of detachable coupons, bearing
specific direct or indirect information by which they may be made available to the
possessor as a means to obtain goods or personal benefits upon specially advan-
tageous terms, the combination with such coupons of display advertisements or
specific artistic or other matter of interest upon their face or obverse, for the benefit
of the publishers or advertisers substantially as described.
Dated this 10th day of December 1895
FELL & WILDING,
1 Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C., Agents for the Applicants.