Tozier Weatherred, Oregon State Fair, Salem; C. E. Ingalls, Gazette-Times, Corvallis; J. M. Scott and Mrs. Scott, Southern Pacific Company; C. W. Robey, Courier, Oregon City; A. E. Frost, Courier, Corvallis; E. M. Reagan and Mrs. Reagan, Herald, Albany; John and Wm. Mathews, News, Newport.
Out of Town Advertising
A Paper read by J. C. Dimm, Editor, Springfield News, at Newport Convention.
I TAKE it that the person who assigned this subject to me had in mind advertising that would come in direct competition with the business men of the community where the newspaper is published, and does not apply to foreign advertising, legal advertising, or specialty advertising, or the advertising of the lines of business not represented in home community. As a rule the proprietor of a newspaper is in business for what he can get out of it in a financial way, although some editors claim to be in business for the uplift of humanity and for the betterment of mankind. A newspaper owes much to the community in which it is published and the community owes much to the newspaper. Just as a business to be a success must prosper, a newspaper to be useful to the community must be prosperous. And in order to be prosperous a newspaper must be conducted upon sound business principles. The proprietor must know his costs and secure sufficient business as a fair price, to meet all expenses and make a fair profit besides.
All progressive merchants strive to extend their business to cover as wide a range of territory as possible. This better enables them to meet competition and to develop into larger establishments, and no one has the right to say to them that they must confine their trade to the borders of their own town. If then the merchant enjoys the right of expansion by enlarging his territory why should not a newspaper reach out to adjacent communities for business, and with increased revenues publish a better newspaper and consequently be of greater service to the community it serves?
Without advertising the country newspaper would be an impossibility, so then, if the selling of advertising space makes the publishing of a country newspaper possible, the more space sold the better the newspaper, and therefore, of the greater value to the community.
The selling of space to out-of-town merchants should stimulate the home merchant, who is in competition with the out-of-town merchant, to use more space and thereby become a real live business man in his community. If, on the other hand, he stops advertising, his trade may be taken away from him by the man who does advertise.
How can a newspaper develop if it confines itself to its own narrow quarters in order not to offend its home advertisers? If a newspaper would be a real force in its community it must be prosperous and in order to be prosperous it should enjoy the same right and privilege enjoyed by any other business enterprise.14
