papers and periodicals are in their power," 80 and he sees this repeated on all sides . Moreover, he realizes that the most severe
arraignments of the influence exerted by the advertiser on jour nalism have come, not from the critics of the press , but from the
members of the press itself.81 The press hasalso given wide pub licity to the often conflicting interests of business manager and
of editor.82 He finds the advertisements themselves often specious There is much , however, to disprove the sweeping character of this statement. The complaint wasmade to the editor of the New York Tribune that certain advertisers threatened to cancel a large contract unless an
adverse criticism was repudiated . “ Reid 's answer was to instruct his critic to return at once to the charge, with redoubled energy . " - R . Cortissoz , Life of Whitelaw Reid , I , 159.
81 " The advertiser, rather than the subscriber, is now the newspaper bogie . He is the person before whom the publisher cowers and whom he tries to
please, and the advertiser is very indifferent about the opinions of a news paper . What interests him is the amount or quality of its circulation . What he wants to know is, how many and what class of persons see it, not how many persons agree with it.
The consequence is that the newspapers of
largest circulation , published in the great centres of population where most votes are cast, are less and less organs of opinion , especially in America. In fact, in some cases the advertisers use their influence which is great, and which the increasing competition between newspapers makes all the greater — to prevent the expression in newspapers of what is probably the prevailing
local view of men or events. There are not many newspapers which can
afford to defy a large advertiser.” — E . L . Godkin , Unforeseen Tendencies of Democracy, pp . 195 - 196 (1898) .
See Hamilton Holt, Commercialism and Journalism , passim (1909) . “ With the increasing expenses of modern newspapers under the stress of competition the necessity of swelling the advertising revenue of a paper becomes of paramount importance. So the courting of prominent advertisers
is every day more and more the preoccupation of a newspaper manager and he is apt to listen too favourably to any representations made by strong monied interests and himself to exercise a corresponding pressure on the
editorial side of the enterprise .” — G . B . Dibblee, The Newspaper , p . 166 (1913) .
“ The departmentstore advertiser continues to assert his right to dominate the news columns, and it is only a brave and powerful newspaper like the
New York World which can answer the demand of an advertiser that a murder or an accident in his store be omitted from its columns by printing it on its first page with most conspicuous headlines. The weaker newspaper to whom that contract is vital is very apt to overlook the necessity of presenting this particular piece of news.” — 0 . G . Villard , “ SomeWeaknesses
of Modern Journalism ,” in Merle Thorpe, The Coming Newspaper, p . 60 (1915) .
$2 The editor of Collier's Weekly who resigned in 1912 stated that it was because the advertising manager had had too much to say concerning the editorial policy of the publication . - New York Evening Post, October 19, 1912.
83 Advertisements on the eve of a state election for governor in 1914 read : “ President Wilson asks you to elect Martin H . Glynn . Whitman inc
