Value of Local Stories in Pushing Financial War Aims
By Max Taylor, Telegraph Editor of the Eugene Guard.
There is an army of newspaper writers far back from the front upon which the government must depend to put the push into publicity that will carry war financing drives over the top. The effectiveness of this fighting force depends in a large measure upon the character of the publicity employed. We know the writers have the spirit in their work. No other body of men and women this side of the firing line are hitting harder blows.
When the war began in 1914, it seemed that news from Europe had swallowed up the universe and that all other matter had been crowded into oblivion. Nothing seemed to have any right to space, when the war news came. Gradually the connection between things which were happening on the sea, in France and Belgium, and even in Russia, and affairs in America developed. It was not long until the local angle to war news began to force its way to the front. The news of the day has now been so completely associated with the war that the war and local news are inseparable. When confronted by such a situation newspaper writers generally need not resort to ready- made publicity of questionable value in supporting various government activities. The most effective material is provided largely by local stories which are entitled to space because of their value to the newspaper as news. The manner in which this work is handled is of vital importance, and the man or woman who has a part in it should give it careful consideration.
There are very few people who cannot write editorials of some sort. The trouble with a great many people who write news is that they should have been editorial writers. I believe the straight news story more powerful than the editorial as a publicity agent in mustering all classes of people in the support of Liberty bonds, Red Cross and other war activities. The story, however, must be of the sort that will grip the spirit of the reader, cause him to think for himself and carry incentive to action.
An illustration of an effective use of a news story was offered the other day in a 200-word dispatch sent out from Washington. It announced that President Wilson had bought a $50 Liberty bond——$5 down and $5 a month, and stated that the president wanted 1,000,000 other Americans to buy another bond. Of course the fact that it contained a call from the president had a great deal to do with the result that followed its publication throughout the United States, but, nevertheless, it was the utilization of news suggestion that made it the most effective bit of publicity in the entire campaign for the sale of bonds.
I never realized more fully the power of news suggestion than I did when the Guard conducted a “Tobacco for the Soldiers” campaign last fall. More
than $250 was given as a result of that campaign. I believe that is proportionately a greater amount than was raised by any other paper in the state of
9
