South Bend News-Times, Volume 32, Number 329, South Bend, St. Joseph County, 25 November 1915 — Page 3

THE SOUTH BEND NEWS-TIMES

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Growth, the law of life, is at the same time the clearest and surest evidence of life. Real, natural and healthy growth is not the work of a day or of months it is the work of years. In the case of a business or of an institution like a newspaper such a growth is dependent first upon the stability of the foundation, and second upon the leaven of progressiveness permeating its policy. The News-Times comes to you this morning m a new size and in a new "dress". These mechanical improvements, marking as they do the beginning of a new period of greater usefulness and greater service, are at the same time the outward evidence of the culmination of one stage of News-Times growth. In enlarging its page to eight columns this paper is joining in a general movement which already includes nearly every organ of the metropolitan press. Five of the seven important papers in Chicago print eight columns to the page and in the other large cities the percentage is even greater. This form is primarily for the service of the advertiser, since it enables the better display of his news of merchandising along with the local and telegraph news. SERVICE is a well -sounding word that has lately come into frequent use in the business world. In some cases it is simply a word; in ethers service is a fact. Coincident with the change of The News-Times to a new size and a new "dress" the advertising department inaugurates a policy of increased service, intensive as well as extensive. It will be the aim of The News-Times to render more and bctler service, to furnish not onlv soace but the cooperation which makes the use of that space effective, to make this service known to an increasing number of prospective advertisers, but never in a mad scramble ior volume of businesr, to neglect the advertiser with whom we now enjoy relatiorv

In Five Months of 1915 The News-Times Gained 340,9 1 2 lines-1,217 columns Figures, like actions, speak louder than words. They may seem dry reading but they tell the story of a business unerringly. We think we are justified in calling these figures significant. They show our growth better than anything we might say. Here are the comparative advertising records for the past five months of this year with those of the same period in 1914. June lc 1 S 636,860 lines June 1914 592,104 lines Net gain 44,666 lines July 115 570,486 lines July 1914 500,732 lines Net gain 69,754 lines August l(M5 4C3,5()8 lines August 1CU4 432,064 lines Net gain 60,634 lines September I c 1 5 5$7,$7o lines September iOM 488,768 lines Net pain 98,602 lines October i oi 5 717,006 lines October 1CM4 65o,650 lines Net gain 67,256 lines

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One feature of our service which is. always at

command of the advertiser is the preparation

of copy and the provision of suitable illustrations. Not infrequently a prospective advertiser is deterred because he feels he has not the time to prepare copy or he hesitates because of inexperience. It is for all such that this paper maintains a department which will prepare copy, submit it for approval and handle the details connected with its insertion, holding itself at the direction of the advertiser at all times, of course. Nothing so ' 'dresses up" an advertisement as an appropriate picture. Two advertising illustration services, including illustrations for every class of business, are at the command of News-Times advertisers. Both of these are conceded to be unexcelled. It's our pleasure to offer them, your profit to use them.

Just a Word About Standards of Practice and About Mak ing Practice Meet Standards Truth, the Ideal, is at the same time elemental. For one to say that he believes in truth in advertising is but a negative virtue upon no higher plane than the merit of one who says he believes all men have an equal right to lite, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. To say that one subscribes to the standard of truth is admirable, it may be granted. To proclaim it loudly and repeatedly is to invite closer examination. One sometimes wonders what such protestations are intended to cover. Subscribing as it does to the standard of truth in advertising, first because it is the ethical ideal and second because only true advertising is good advertising. The News-Times realizes the vanity of hoping at one fell stroke to crush untruth, half truths and the forces that mislead. A "paper blockade" is no more effective. It is true as well that no little injustice has been worked by zealous but undiscriminating "reformers." The other day an order came to this office for the insertion of copy in which there were statements about which there were no two ways of thinking; they simply could not be true because they set at naught the absolute conclusions of science, conclusions so positive that they are matters of common everyday knowledge. This case was easy; the copy was returned with the explanation that, while The News-Times does not recognize as elTective the limitations imposed by the "artificial ethics" of a certain profession, this paper could not publish such statements as this copy contained. It is a singular fadt that this copy with its glaring falsehood, was printed in prominent location in papers which loudly and continually boast of having "cleaned their columns" and if the original order is carried out it will appear nearly a dozen more times. This is only one example to point out that mere words are futile when the effort is to approach truth, the cornerstone of legitimate and effective advertising. Careful reading of copy submitted and its acceptance or rejection according to its individual merit and truthworthiness will enable a much closer approach to the real standards of truth and justice than any number of sweeping edicts. With the newspaper it's simply a question of policy, a question o: choosing an honest, well-intentioned purpose to do justice to both reader and advertiser; or one of self-righteous cant which finds its greatest expression in words. The News-Times chooses the former.

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