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 ADVERTISEMENT 99 keep mute for the sake of an occasional advertisement. added that many readers habitually shake loose bills out When the British public persisted, not long ago, in paying of a magazine before they begin to turn the pages, and that premium prices for the shares of over-capitalized com- railway stations, railway carriages, and even public streets, panies, the crash had no sooner come than the newspapers are thus littered with trampled and muddy advertisements. were accused of having puffed promotions for the sake of The old practice of distributing handbills in the streets is the money received for publishing prospectuses. As a dying a natural death, more or less hastened by local byematter of fact, in the case of the best dailies in England laws, and when the loose bills in magazines and cheap and America, the editor does not stand at all in awe of novels have ceased to exist no one will be the loser. the advertiser, and time after time the Money Article has Advertisements in the weekly press are on the whole ruthlessly attacked a promotion of which the prospectus more successful in England than in America. A few appeared in the very same issue. It is indeed to the American weeklies cope successfully with the increasing interest of the advertiser, as well as to the interest of the competition of the huge Sunday editions of American reader, that this independence should be preserved, for daily papers. But even the most successful among them the worth of any journal as an advertising medium - a paper for boys—has hardly attained the prosperity depends upon its possessing a bonci-Jide circulation among of some among its English contemporaries in the field of persons who believe it to be a serious and honestly-con- weekly journalism. ducted newspaper. All advertisers know that the minor The merchant who turns to these pages for practical weeklies, which contain nothing but trade puffs, and are suggesti°ns concerning the advertising of his own business, scattered broadcast among people who pay nothing for can be given no better advice than to betake himself to their copies, are absolutely worthless from the advertiser’s an established advertising agent of good repute, and be point of view. The most striking difference between the guided by his counsels. The chief part that he can himperiodical press of Great Britain and that of America is, self play with advantage is to note from day to day that in the former country the magazines and reviews play whether the agent is obtaining advantageous positions but a secondary role, while in the United States the three for his announcements. Every advertiser will naturally or four monthlies possessing the largest circulation are of prefer a right-hand page to a left-hand page, and the right the very first importance as advertising mediums. One side of the page to the left side of the page; while the reason for this is that the advertisements in an American advertiser who most indefatigably urges his claims upon magazine are printed on as good paper, and printed with the agent will, in the long run, obtain the largest share of as great care, as any other part of the contents. There the favours to be distributed. To the merchant who are probably very few among American magazine readers inclines to consider advertising in connexion with the who do not habitually look through the advertising pages, broader aspects of his calling, it may be suggested that with the certainty that they will be entertained by the a new channel of trade demands very serious attention. beauty of the advertiser’s illustrations and the quaint What is called in England “postal trade,” and in America curtness of his phrases. Another reason is that the “mail order business,” is growing very rapidly. Small American monthly magazine goes to all parts of the dealers in both countries have complained very bitterly United States, while, owing to the time required for long of the competition they suffer from the general dealers journeys on even the swiftest trains, no American daily and from stores made up of departments which, under one paper can have so general a circulation as The Times in roof, offer to the consumer every imaginable sort of merchanthe United Kingdom. In comparison with points on the dise. This general trading, which, on the one hand, seriously Pacific coast, Chicago does not seem far from New York, threatens the small trader, and on the other hand offers yet, with the exception of one frenzied and altogether greater possibilities of profit to the proportionately small unsuccessful attempt, no New York daily has ever at- number of persons who can undertake business on so large tempted to force a circulation in Chicago. The American a scale, becomes infinitely more formidable when the advertiser would, therefore, have to spend money on a general dealer endeavours not only to attract the trade of great number of daily papers in order to reach as wide- a town, but to make his place of business a centre from spread a public as one successful magazine offers him. which he distributes by post his goods to remote parts of There is reason to believe that the English magazine the country. In America, where the weight of parcels publishers have erred gravely in taking what are known carried by post is limited to four pounds, and where the in the trade as “ insets,” consisting of separate cards or private. carrying companies are forced to charge a very sheets printed at the advertiser’s cost, and accepted by the much higher rate for carriage from New York to California publisher at a specific charge for every thousand copies. than for shorter distances, the centralization of trade is This system of insetting has the grave inconvenience that necessarily limited ■ but it is no secret that, at the present the advertiser finds himself compelled to print as many moment, persons residing in those parts of the United insets as the publisher asserts that he can use. The Kingdom most remote from London habitually avail publisher, on the other hand, is somewhat at the mercy themselves of the English parcel post, which carries packof too enthusiastic agents and employes, who estimate ages up to eleven pounds, in order to procure a great over-confklently the edition of the periodical which will part of their household supplies direct from general dealers probably be printed for a certain month, and advertisers in London. A trading company, which conducts its have had reason to fear that many of their insets were operations upon such a scale as this, can afford to spend wasted. The added weight and bulk of the insets cause an almost unlimited sum in advertising throughout the inconvenience and expense to the newsdealer, as two or United Kingdom, and even the trader who offers only one three insets printed upon cardboard are equivalent to at specific class of merchandise is beginning to recognize the least sixteen additional pages. Some newsdealers have possibility of appealing to the whole country. further complicated the inset question by threatening to M ith regard to the literature of advertising, it need remove insets unless special tribute be paid to them ; and only be added that, in addition to the historical article in with all these difficulties to be considered, many magazine the Edinburgh Review for February 1843, already menpublishers have seriously considered the advisability of tioned, and that in the Quarterly Review for June 1855, altogether discontinuing the practice of taking insets, and the advertisers handbooks, issued by the leading adverof confining their advertisements to the sheets they them- tising agents, will be found to contain practical information selves print. In connexion with this subject, it may be of great use to the advertiser. (h. r. h.*)