Newspaper Publicity Pays
By H. M. Kelley
A CERTAIN manufacturing company spent $1,500,000 in the year 1913 in advertising a ten-cent article. Their advertisements appear regularly in ten thousand newspapers and magazines. They use other advertising methods, of course, but at least seventy-five per cent of their total expenditures for advertising purposes was paid for space in papers and magazines. It is wholly a matter of dollars and cents with them, and they naturally put their money where it will accomplish most, and they consider newspapers better for advertising purposes by seventy-five per cent than all other methods combined. As a result of their extensive advertising, they created an international demand for their merchandise, and were therefore able to send out during 1913 forty-five thousand carloads of their goods. When one has something for the public, it is incumbent upon him to create a public demand for it. The best way to reach the public is through the newspaper, the recognized avenue to the public mind. Enterprising business men make free use of this method of advertising, although they have to pay for every inch of space they use. Everybody reads the newspapers, and if a thing is kept before the public it will be noticed by the public. People are bound to read the papers. If they do not, they cannot keep up with the times; and when they are asked if they have read something that has been presented in the papers, they are chagrined if they have not. The Saviour said, “The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light;” but this ought not to be. If it is policy for the men of the world to use legitimate means to bring themselves and their business before the world, it is expedient that we use the same methods to bring the great message of salvation before the world. The Lord has graciously given us the third angel’s message with all its possibilities for good, and the eternal destiny of countless thousands hangs upon their attitude toward this message. It is apparent therefore that we are duty bound to impress the sacred importance of the message upon the minds of men and women everywhere. We should improve every opportunity and use the best methods available. The message intrusted to us to give to the world is past due, and the Lord is entreating us to hasten the work. The wise man’s counsel to the sluggard is, no doubt, applicable to some of us: “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.” Why should we not be as quick to utilize the columns of the newspapers for the proclamation of the third angel’s message as the children of this world are to advertise their merchandise? How Do Newspaper Men Regard Us?
As a rule newspaper editors have no prejudice against us. They are in business to publish anything that is of interest to the public, and are usually glad to use important notices of our meetings, and short, pointed articles prepared especially for them. For a number of years the writer has furnished articles on the Sabbath question and other doctrinal points of our faith, and at times has run series of articles in city papers; and with but few exceptions has not had articles rejected. On a number of occasions Catholic editors have given us considerable space and have been friendly toward our work. Under such circumstances we have found it necessary to be cautious not to use unwise and offensive expressions. Indeed, propriety demands this under all circumstances. We met one editor who was not favorable toward us. I proposed to pay him for a display advertisement of our meetings. He had never run an advertisement of this kind before, and wrote an editorial calling attention to it. Afterwards he was willing to use anything we gave him. It is not always necessary to run display advertisements; in fact, a short article, well written, will be read by more persons than displayed matter, but there are times when it is profitable to use display advertisements. We were running a series of articles in the daily paper this summer. The articles were creating quite an interest, but the ministers of the city went to the editor and told him they would boycott his paper if he continued to run the articles. The editor himself was very much interested, but the business manager and proprietor refused to use any more of the series. We took the matter good-naturedly, and have since been privileged to furnish articles on different points of our faith. Because an editor refuses to use a certain article which we may think is all right, we need not think he will not publish anything for us. Editors are always glad to get copy that will be of interest to their readers, if it is properly prepared. I know of a man who worked an article over seventeen times before he could get it before the public; but when he finally did succeed, it was a masterpiece, and was read by thousands of persons. It is better to write an article over seventeen times and have it read by thousands of persons than to write it once and have only seventeen persons read it. Dr. T. De Witt Talmage appreciated the value of newspaper publicity. In one of his sermons he said: “Whoever else may be crowded or kept standing, or kept outside the doors, I charge the trustees and the ushers of this church that they give full elbowroom to all these journalists, since each one is another church five times or ten times or twenty times larger than this august assemblage, and it is by the printing press that the gospel of the Son of God is to be yet preached to all the world. May the blessing of the Lord God come down upon all the editors, and all the reporters, and all the compositors, and all the proof readers, and all the typesetters!”—“Life and Sermons of Talmage,” page 80, part I.