vertising
business way can hope to have the patronage of responsible ad vertisers, for no business house will make an advertising contract
with a newspaper that may at any time suspend publication. It is as necessary for a first -class business house to carry its adver
tisements in a medium of unquestioned business integrity as it is for a newspaper to carry only advertisements it can guarantee.86 The general strengthening of all newspapers in a business way
is in large part due to the wholesome effect theadvertiser has had on its business management. If the somewhat recent establish ment of the office of business manager has seemed to result in the
subordination of the press to its business interests , it must not be forgotten that the business manager has often brought order out of previous financial chaos. The development of national advertising has donemuch to de velop the local and provincial press. If the subscription listsof the
country papers drop off through the competition of the press of the neighboring city , their advertising columns, carrying national as well as local advertising, strengthen their business credit .
The student of history finds, moreover , in these very question ings of the power of the advertiser an important record of changes
that have come in the business management of the press. If the
advertiser has unduly influenced the press to suppress news un favorable to special business interests , it has been the press itself that has set the danger signal. If the advertiser has been unfair in
his dealings with the public , it has been the press that has led the campaign for honest advertising and that has found its great 86 TheNew York Evening Post inquired under the caption ASSOCIATES : “ Do you prefer to walk arm in arm in the street with a person whose appear ance would indicate that he was headed for a free lunch counter rather than
with a person of character ? Do you prefer to live next door to a shark ? Do
you prefer to patronize the cheapest places without regard to the quality of what you buy ? As an advertiser do you want your good name associated with houses of questionable business repute or merchandising reputation ?
You buy more than actual space when you use The New York Evening Post . You get association of prestige, character , and responsiveness to legitimate appeal. As a man is known by the company he keeps, a newspaper is known
by the advertising it carries as well as by its honesty of purpose in its news and editorial columns. ” — November 18, 1916 .
Another aspect of the same question is presented in the advertisement, “ The character and standing of the New York Times readers is such that Lost and Found advertisements appearing in its columns are productive of
a high percentage of results." — New York Times, November 25, 1916 .
