Year: 1871

Business Prospects and the New York


Herald.


The HERALD barometer begins to Indicate
already the business prospects for the coming
season. With the breaking up OF winter, the
opening Of the rivers and lakes to spring naviga-
tion, the commerce of the entire country. from
terror heart of the Continent, will resume its
wonted channels. The advertising columns of
the HERALD mark in what directions trade is
going. They have only 10 be consulted from
day to day and we have all the knowledge we
require as to the progress of The city and of the
entire country, but more especially of this
great metropolis. 1t is worthy Of thought to
make comparison between the past and the
present. taking our advertising columns as an
index. When the HERALD was established,
thirty-six years ago, there was very little ad-
vertising done. People had not yet learned
the value of this medium of communication in
the management of their business A few large
wholesale houses, the shipping merchants and
the auctioneers in the lower part Of the city
were almost the only patrons of the
advertising columns. The advertisements
excepting those OF the auctoneers-in the
old "blanket sheets, as the daily journals
were called at that time, were rarely changed;
in fact, in the Daily Adcertiscr, Gazette and
Mercantile Adoertiser, with the exception of
altering the number and renewing the dates
dow - IL g
these papers were not changed in the slightest
manner for a twelvemonth at time. 1t was
about the same with all the other papers, ex-
cept that they occasionally changed their
standing advertisements from one page to an
other to give them a new appearance. The
retail houses Of the city never thought Of ad-
vertising; and if a man wanted a horse, or
had one to sell, the old Bulls Head was the
place for the traffic. Should servants want
places, or persons help, they sought them at
the intelligence offices, or put up notices in the
Tontine, or in some conspicuous place in the
Merchants Exchange, on fences, or at the
ferries. No one thought of giving publicity TO
his business or wants through the medium
of the newspapers.


What contrast to the present vigor and
freshness of our advertising columns, where
the history of our commercial life is written
every day! The HERALD wrought wonder
ful change in the method Of transacting busi-
ness. II taught the people how to make
known their wants; to inform their customers
just what they had to sell, and what
they desired to buy. The admirable mode
of classifying advertisements, adopted by
us, afforded extraordinary facility for
this means Of iDtercommunication, and we see
the result to-day, not alone in our own pages,
but in the general prosperity of business all
around us. The ''blanket sheets have
vanished like the mist of the morning under
the influence of the progress Of enlightened
journalism. AS to the remarkable increase in
circulation experienced by the press generally,
it is only necessary to say that the circulation
of all the large daily papers, morning and
evening, did not aggregate twenty thousand
copies when the HERALD was established, and
of these only few passed outside the city
limits except to Washington aud to country
exchanges. Inc HERALD OF LO-uay Is READ
by half million people, to whom it has be-
come not mere luxury--as in former times
the newspaper was-but necessity of the
active, stirring days Of progress and change
in which we live. Its readers are to be found
in every quarter Of the civilized globe where
the English language is spoken, and in some
portions of the Earth, also, where civilization
is only dawning in the Orient--such as China
and Japan-it is conned over for the welcome
news it brings not alone from the American
Continent but, like the four winds of heaven,
from every quarter of the globe where the
interests of mankind are centred. AS n
medium of advertising the business of all the
world, therefore, what more direct channel can
be found than the columns OF the HERALD?
| We mean to keep pace with the rapid pro-
gress Of this country, and if possible, to antic-
| pate tho wants Of its business and its people.
| When the HERALD was first established the
population Of this city was only two hundred