Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 June 1905 — NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING. [ARTICLE]

NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING.

What newspapers have known these many years and wondered that some part of the world could not know as well seems at last to be carrying weight with the lagging railways—that is, that newspaper advertising is muoh more profitable than any other kind. Charles S. Young, advertising manager for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad, has declared in a recent university extension lecture that newspapers are growing steadily in the estimation of the traffic corporations and are even now looked upon as the best sources for commanding the attention of the traveling public. Pleasing as this tardy admission is, our surprise remains that the railways, demanding the most alert intelligence in their operation, should have gone on stumbling in the dark concerning advertising truths accepted years ago in the humblest circles of trade. Theatrical managers and other amusement promoters, steamship lines, insurance companies and department stores have reaped fortunes from the columns of the newspaper time out of mind, and today the baker, grocer, butcher and clothier are advocates of the immense value derived from their use. The era of the sandwich man, the decorated goat, the garish billboard and the inglorious handbill is forever past. Painted rocks on the hillsides and painted elephants in the meadows stand forth as amusing reminders of misguided advertisers in days when business ethics were in the bud. Posters, lithographs, cards and what not of like repute are gradually lining up with the flaring yellow letters on the wayside barn as relics of the methods of our distinguished grandparents. Newspaper advertising is the acknowledged business getter and will continue to be. No other agency speaks to so ccilossal a clientele. The magazine has a wide circulation, to be sure, but it crawls pokily to its destination and then falls into a peaceful siesta for thirty days. The daily and weekly, alive and active, rest not. Hot from the press they deliver tbeir message of the merchant. In a few hours their task is repeated as eagerly, and millions pore over their pages to the magazine’s thousands. The railroads are wise, if belated, in their conversion.—American Press.