INDUSTRIAL JOURNALISM Lectures in the Forum IN Industrial Journalism At the New York University Season of 1915 Under the Auspices of THE NEW YORK TRADE PRESS ASSOCIATION With an Introduction by ALBERT FREDERICK WILSON Department of Journalism, New York University NEW YORK ADVERTISING & SELLING MAGAZINE, INC. 1915 Copyright, 1915, by Advertising & Selling Magazine. Inc. All Rights Reserved CONTENTS PAGE Introduction 5 By Albert Frederick Wilson. The History and Development of Industrial Jour- nalism 9 By Charles T. Root. Business Press Opportunities 28 By E. A. Simmons. The Reasons for Trade and Technical Papers . . 47 By James H. McGraw. The Special Service of the Class Paper to an Industry 59 By H. M. Swetland. The Technical Paper and the Manufacturer . , 71 By John A. Hill. The News Service of the Trade and Technical Press 85 By W. H. Taylor. The Standards of Practice of the Business Press . . 97 By W. H. Ukers. The Making of a Trade Paper 114 By John Clyde Oswald. 407^0-^ INTRODUCTION It is a significant thing that marked industrial energy in a nation is always a by-product^ — the result of cooperative thinking. An insular state of mind grows a row of potatoes on a side hill where its grandfather planted a hundred years before. The progressive sum leads out to exhaustion. A man thinking alone lets his ideas eat in on the species. Men thinking together fer- tilize energy through the process of attrition. Dynamics knows of no force that can compare with that created when strong men's ideas rub elbows. It is not sloth that endangers a nation's progress- — that can easily be cauterized. The insidious peril is insular energy working out to self-exhaustion. Chronic insularity, with its attending evils, was torn to shreds by the teeth of the printing press. Men no longer plant potatoes year after year on the side hill. Somewhere, a printing press jammed its indignant jaws together and stopped the folly. By that act the press, the potato patch, and the enlightened energy became social factors. There is nothing more vital to society than the printing press that tells men how to work. In this small volume of lectures we have gathered together the addresses which were delivered before the Forum in In- dustrial Journalism at New York University during the session of 1914-1915. The purpose of the Forum was to acquaint young men and women of the tmiversity world with the opportunities the business press offered for life work. The Department of Journalism of New York University, in cooperation with the New York Trade Press Association, presents this book as the first contribution toward a record of the beginnings and develop- ment of industrial journalism in America. University training for business journalists was first sug- gested by Mr. Horace M. Swetland. Several years ago he wrote Dean Joseph French Johnson, of the School of Commerce, Accounts and Finance, proposing that the Department of Jour- nalism at New York University institute a lecture course in trade and class journalism. Dean Johnson immediately recog- nized the service that such a course might accomplish. He turned the matter over to a committee to consult with the New York Trade Press Association, his one stipulation being that if the 5 ^6^ -' "^' ' INTRODUCTION course were founded the instructors must be men of practical experience in the field of business publishing. Under the Presi- dency of Mr. William H. Ukers, the New York Trade Press Association determined to offer preliminary information on the aims and scope of the business press through the Forum in Industrial Journalism. The Forum was not designed to offer a formal academic course of instruction. There is no attempt here to cover the making and editing of a business journal in all its technical de- tail. The first step was to inform university students of the possibilities of the industrial field. Very little has been known about these opportunities. Even in the allied fields of journalism there has been a surprising ignorance of the work done by the industrial journals. The Forum purposed to tell young men and women what an industrial journal was, what it did, how it was made, and the chances it supplied for a satisfactory life work. How well the Forum lecturers accomplished their purpose can be ascertained by a careful reading of these pages. The lectures are inspiring, personal stories of success and constructive work. We have here a handful of pioneer publishers who have made industrial journalism what it is to-day. They have told in a sincere, straightforward manner what they put into their journals to make them of vital service. We of the University have felt especially gratified that we were able to present these men of dominating energy and courage to the student classroom. It is such cooperation as this that gives the modern municipal university its opportunity. The lectures really need very little introduction. They have explained the purpose and working methods of the business press more clearly than I could hope to do. However, in reading over the papers, I have been impressed with one phase of the work which the industrial journals are doing which, I think, has not been strongly enough emphasized. That phase is the social benefit attained through the reaction of the service done for the industrial life of the nation. I do not mean to suggest that industrial publishing is a philanthropic mental con- dition. It is much as Mr. Hill has said, not even a profession, but a business, pure and simple. Still, the reaction of honest, constructive business service is always in favor of the social good. It would not be difficult to establish the fact that social welfare rests on nothing so important as honest industrial service. If we grant, then, that this service is being rendered we must not forget as a social body the debt we owe. It is just as vital to the nation's industrial life that the business press have all the privi- INTRODUCTION 7 leges of easy and cheap distribution as it is to the world of cur- rent events to have second-class newspaper and magazine entry. In closing this short preface I have been tempted to lift a few quotations from the lectures and place them here for emphasis. Mr. Ukers' " Standards of Practice " ought to have a page to themselves in this book, Mr. Swetland's " the desire of in- dustrial supremacy mxay be mentioned as one of the great indirect benefits bequeathed by an industrial publisher to an industry," is splendid. And this from Mr. McGraw : " the time is at hand when the service rendered the reader through the advertising pages (of an industrial journal) ranks with that provided him by the text pages . . . the messages are of immediate value." " Summed up," says Mr. Simmons, " the inside story of success of any trade, technical or class journal lies in the determination to make a paper that will lead the industry to which it is de- voted — that will be a motor, not a trailer; that will show men how to build a business and run it economically and efficiently." " It is of the highest significance," says ]\Ir. Root, " that the clientele of the business press is made up of the industrial and mercantile bone and sinew of the nation." I like Mr. Taylor's : " The trade and technical press stands for the American business man. It believes in his genius, his brain, his honesty, and his integrity ; that he is engaged in solving great problems, the solution of which will bring benefit to mankind." I should like to quote some of those remarkable illustrations of the right and wrong way to print which were furnished by Mr. Oswald, but his slides cannot be set in type, unfortunately. And last, I must quote that ringing word of good cheer and welcome to Youth from Mr. Hill. It has so much of Youth in itself. " I am not one of that vast army who declare that their field is overrun and no good. The technical paper field is good, and needs brains and energy and initiative and hustle, just as much as ever, and the rewards are just as sure, and liable to be larger. ... It always makes me smile to hear a master workman announce that he wouldn't want a son of his to learn his busi- ness — I wish I had one that wanted to learn mine. I'm not afraid some bright young man will take my place. I'm afraid he won't." Albert Frederick Wilson. Department of Journalism, New York University. The History and Development of Industrial Journalism First Lecture in the Forum in Industrial Journalism at the New York University, Feb. lo, 191 5 By CHARLES T. ROOT President, The Root Newspaper Association. I have been' asked to open this evening a series of lectures on Industrial Journalism, with some account of the history and development of this branch of newspaperdom. As this is the primary talk, it will naturally include a good deal that is elemen- tary. If, therefore, a part of what I say comes to you as a twice told tale, you will please bear in mind that it is my duty under the assignment given me to begin at the beginning. I look at Journalism as divided something as follows : The broadest division is into General and Specialized publications. Under the " General " heading come the dailies, the country weeklies and the weekly and monthly magazines. Under the " Specialized " heading fall almost all other periodical publica- tions, including the Fraternal, Propagandist, Scientific, Religious, Agricultural and Business papers. Business papers are again subdivided into those relating to Production, those to Distribution and those to Finance. The terminology employed in discriminat- ing among publications is not very exact, but I assume that by the term Industrial Journalism in the title of the subject which is assigned to me, is intended what in my classification I have called Business Journalism. I prefer to use the latter as being the broader term. Sometimes the whole grand division of Spe- cialized Journalism is lumped under the term^ Class Papers, and very frequently the term Class Journals is employed to designate the subdivision which I have called Business Journals, and which again are indiscriminately called Trade Journals ; or, if the speaker wishes to be more exact. Trade and Technical Journals. The general distinction between Trade and Technical Journals is that the latter devotes itself mainly to the problems of production 9 10 LECTURES IN THE FORUM and use, while the former has chiefly to do with those of dis- tribution. In many publications these two fields find treatment side by side, but the general distinction between them holds true. For the purposes of this talk, it will suffice to note this dift'erentia- tion between these two kinds of business papers and then to treat them as one. Let me give you a brief sketch of the origin and rise of this branch of publishing. The business paper, that is, broadly speaking, the periodical devoted to the production or distribution, or both, of some class or related classes of merchandise, is the product of a highly evolved commercial system. When trans- portation and communication were slow and difficult and each community supplied its own wants and formed its own market, there was no need for this adjunct of modern trade. The seed of the business journal, indeed, existed in commerce, but in order that this seed might sprout the ground had first to be plowed by the locomotive and fertilized by the electric telegraph. When the conditions were right it made its appearance. In order to begin at the beginning, I must ask you to step back with me into the first half of the last century. It was in the year 1846 that two men, William Burroughs, Jr., and Robert Boyd, by name, ventured on a novel experiment : that of launch- ing a weekly paper devoted particularly to the dry goods trade. When the first number of this new periodical appeared under the title '' Dry Goods Reporter and Commercial Glance," it established two records at least, and perhaps three — one that the dry goods trade was the first to have its own journalistic mouthpiece in this country, and another that the paper thus founded was long to be the dean of trade papers in America. The possible third record, of which I am not so certain, was that thus was established the first strictly trade paper in the world. I am quite certain that this record will stand unless it should prove that England had witnessed some earlier but un- successful experiment in this line. At any rate, Mr. Burroughs' paper is the only trade journal that can boast continuous issues from that ancient period. By reason of its being the first of its kind, and of its un- broken continuity, it seems natural to take this publication and to trace its career as a type and illustration of the growth of American specialized business journalism. There is another rea- son for doing this in my own case and that is that I know more about this paper than any other, having been myself connected with it for over twenty-five years. I presume there is no one in this audience who does not know of the proverbial modesty IN INDUSTRIAL JOURNALISM ii of newspaper men, and you will all, therefore, appreciate the distress that it must cause me to talk so much about my own affairs. But in the discharge of my duty I feel that I must con- quer my shrinking and tell you more about the growth and development of this paper, which is universally acknowledged to be a type and representative of what is best in American busi- ness journalism. I have already stated that the baptismal name of our original trade paper was " Dry Goods Reporter and Commercial Glance." The earliest files of this paper have been lost and were it not for the memory of one of its original employees, dead now these many years, I should not be quite sure of the accuracy of the title, and that for a very curious reason. Some twenty years ago, I learned that there was in the hands of a London dealer in old books and manuscripts a letter of William M. Thackeray, in which the illustrious novelist made reference to this American publication. I immediately purchased the letter, which was apparently addressed to Leigh Hunt, poet and writer, as it begins, " My dear Leigh," and contains the following para- graph : " There is an American paper on the coffee-room table here called the ' Dry Goods Reporter and Commerce Gazette.' " In a previous paragraph the writer admits that he has had a pint of Madeira with his dinner. Under these circumstances the subtitle of the paper may very easily have been misread by those genial spectacles. As Mr. Thackeray also, probably on account of the Madeira, failed to date his letter, we do not know exactly how early an issue of this father of all trade papers had found its slow way by sailing ship to the Glasgow coffee-room table. The oldest file now existing in the office of the publication is that for 1849, by which time its title, which had previously under- gone one or two changes, had become " Dry Goods Reporter andi Merchants' Gazette." This file indicates a considerable degree of prosperity. It is, therefore, rather surprising to note how slowly the idea of business journalism spread. In 1856, in which year was published the Newspaper Record, the first list of American newspapers to which I have access, there appeared the names of but three class journals and, of these, two were in the real estate field, so that apparently in the first ten years of the life of the " Economist," the dry goods trade seems to have re- mained the only one to boast its own special organ. In 1856, the " Iron Age " first saw the light and the examples thus set began to be followed in other lines. Up to 1869, however, when the " American Newspaper Directory " gave the names of about twenty-five non-religious class publications, of which fully half 12 LECTURES IN THE FORUM were devoted either to insurance or real estate, the growth of the trade paper idea was still extremely slow. But during the next thirty years, the breed increased and multiplied at such a rate that the same directory for 1899 listed nearly eight hundred non-religious class journals having for the purposes of this paper many of the characteristics of trade pub- lications. To find room for this number it has been necessary for the enterprising publishers to make for themselves fields in nearly every gainful occupation, so that now almost every dis- tinguishable line, from the rolling mill and the shipyard to the barber, the stamp collector and the undertaker, has one or more special organs. Pretty nearly the whole ground being occupied, the increase in number of business papers is now very gradual. The statistics for 191 4 seem to show a net gain of only twenty- five titles in the last fifteen years. In future years, in obedience to the general tendency toward larger units, this number is likely to remain nearly stationary if, indeed, consolidations and the natural mortality among weak publications do not actually de- crease it. Of course, the value and character of business papers varies ver}^ widely at any given time. Moreover their value and char- acter as a class has varied greatly at different periods during the history of the industry. The latter variation has been dis- tinctly in the direction of improvement. A generation ago when I entered this field of work, the average trade paper occupied a position which could only by courtesy be termed important. Its circulation was very moderate, and not always accurately stated. In its editorial room the paste-pot was often mightier than the pen. Its treatment of markets and other trade subjects was both superficial and conventional, while the burning questions, the really vital and sensitive spots in the trade, it touched but gingerly or avoided entirely lest advertising " patronage " held mainly on the tenure of personal favor, should be withdrawn. Its advertising canvass was tinged with apology and involved the consumption of more shoe leather than brain tissue. Its adver- tising rate was a " movable feast " and as the solicitor, not the paper, commanded the business, the commissions it paid would have been ruinous had the expenses of getting out the publication amounted to anything comparable with those of the present day. The advertisements most desired by the average publisher in those days when the philosophy of advertising was little under- stood, were those which could be electrotyped and run until the copper was worn thin on the block to save the expense of com- position, and this kind of cast-iron advertising was the kind most IN INDUSTRIAL JOURNALISM 13 readily obtained because the advertiser was frequently simply yielding to importunity or acting on the vague idea that he ought to do some advertising while not having the faintest notion as to how it ought to be done. It is high testimony to the value of advertising as well as to the vitality of the specialized trade paper idea, that even this rudimentary publicity served to bring seller and buyer together to a recognized extent and that the papers themselves as a class, despite their incompleteness, held on and grew. These remarks apply to the rank and file without much pretension to leadership. Then as now, there was " room at the top " filled by a few prominent and efficient business papers. On the whole I presume that the business press of 1870, like that of 191 5, was about as good as the respective industries catered to would appreciate and support. The actual contrast of the business press at the two epochs is, however, very marked. Whether regarded from the editorial, reportorial or mechanical standpoint, the best practice of Ameri- can trade journalism to-day outclasses anything ever before shown in this country or anything ever accomplished in Europe. Our typical high-class trade paper to-day, instead of being com- paratively cheaply edited, commands, and to hold its place must command, the best class of brains and talent to be found in the industry or business which it represents, and it employs such talent not only for the general editorial and statistical work, but for handling and assisting to solve the new and ever-changmg problems which confront its readers. Unlike the daily, which is supposed to cover everything under the sun and not necessarily to know anything for sure, the successful business paper confines itself mainly within the narrow limits of certain closely related industries, but within those limits it is supposed to know pre- cisely what it is talking about. The general or unspecialized paper is like a charge of small shot scattering over all creation. The trade paper is more like the rifle ball, which, while it can strike but a small spot, is supposed to go through from side to side. For that reason the business paper has got to be edited by people experienced and successful in the trades addressed, and to get such people it has to compete with the large houses in its clientele, who are always seeking the same class of talent. This one development, viz. : the increasing demand upon the business paper on its editorial side, has raised the cost of this work many fold during the last quarter of a century. For example, the information, instruction, suggestion and direction which is given to its subscribers by the editorial department of the " Dry Goods Economist," cost that paper about $80,000 a year, 14 LECTURES IN THE FORUM and I could probably name half a dozen leading journals in odier fields whose editorial expenses are comparable to these. With such a brain equipment, a high-class business paper can command the attention and respect of its limited and homo- geneous audience and can and must talk to this audience, not timidly and with a mere desire to please, but with authority, be- stowing counsel, caution and criticism with fearless candor. I may mention that when this aggressive and independent policy began to characterize the high-class trade papers, the trades in- volved didn't know what to make of it and were sometimes in- clined to resent the criticisms offered. I remember that during the nineties the " Dry Goods Economist " was served with a con- siderable number of libel suits, claiming aggregate damages of some $400,000, none of which suits arose out of any expression of spite or personal enmity, but all were caused by the paper's unsparing criticism of business methods which it considered questionable. I may add that the total damages assessed in all these libel suits amounted to just six cents. As the trades have become accustomed to the independent and even critical habit of their business papers, they have become less inclined to resent frank expressions of criticism or blame which a generation ago might have made them send for their lawyers. The high-class modern trade paper is not merely better edited than it used to be, it is thoroughly departmented. Without enter- ing too much into detail, let me sketch the general organization of a first class trade or technical newspaper ofifice. Of the edi- torial end I have already said enough to indicate its character. The advertising department is headed and manned by the brightest and best-posted men in the affairs of the trade or industry served, that can be secured. The chief job of this de- partment is no longer what it used to be, namely, to get the contract for space. It is to make good on that contract and prove to the advertiser that there is no more economical and efficient method of obtaining distribution of his merchandise than the business journal affords. To secure this result the large trade or technical paper of to-day maintains a service staff of men or women or both, who are not merely proficient in adver- tisement writing, but familiar with the merchandise, methods and personnel of the trade or industry served. This Service department often includes a complete Art department to insure the effective illustration of advertising embodying the indis- pensable technical accuracy of drawing. The subscription department is carried on with persistence and energy, but not as of old with price-cutting and irrelevant IN INDUSTRIAL JOURNALISM 15 inducements of one kind or anotlier. Tlie size and costliness of the big trade journal — always in excess of the subscription price — take away all temptation from the publisher to force its circulation among persons or concerns who do not need or will not make practical use of it. This fact, together with the gov- ernmental exclusion of given-away circulation from second-class mail, make for the cleanness and hundred-per-centness of busi- ness paper circulation. A word about trade journal circulations may not be inappro- priate in this connection. J\Iany people who know the high repu- tation of some trade paper, who have observed its imposing size and noted the respect with which its statements and statistics are quoted are astonished to learn that its edition compared with the circulation figures given out by some of the dailies or magazines, is seemingly insignificant. " What," they say, " only 15,000 sub- scribers? We supposed it had 150,000 at least." Such people overlook the fact that while each copy of a daily or magazine is aimed at a single individual reading or purchasing capacity, each copy of the trade paper is addressed to a purchasing capacity of many hundreds or many thousands. It is a good big trade which can absorb 15,000 copies of its trade paper; a trade with a buy- ing capacity which is almost incalculable. The typographic and general mechanical department speaks for itself in such papers as these examples of a few leading publications which I have here this evening. The office and accounting department is that of any large and widely ramified business. There is much to be seen in a trade journal establish- ment, which would surprise as well as interest the visitor — and such visitors are always welcome — who is not aware of the proportions of this branch of newspaperdom. Some notion of these proportions may be inferred from a few concrete facts in illustration. There are a number of busi- ness papers each of which has on its pay-roll, entirely apart from the printing and other mechanical staffs, from 150 to 175 men and women. One business paper organization held a con- vention of its own staffs a few years ago, which gathered 250 people from all over the country, filled three busy days with consultation, discussion and inspiration, and then scattered back to work with renewed intelligence and enthusiasm. This con- vention cost the stockholders $10,000, which was considered money well spent. Another such organization, one of the great- est in the world, has just completed and occupied a new business home in New York City, in a twelve-story building, costing, with its site, something over a million and a quarter of dollars. i6 LECTURES IN THE FORUM Returning once more to the history of the " Dry Goods Economist," in the tracing of which I believe I am giving a typical example of the best development of business journalism, I would divide this history into three periods. The first period extends from 1846 to 1852. In this latter year its proprietors, becoming ambitious to publish an authoritative financial journal, changed the shape of the publication to one modeled upon the " London Economist " and gave their paper a rebirth under the sonorous title of " United States Economist and Dry Goods Reporter." This event marked the beginning of the second period of this journal, a period covering over thirty years, and ending with the transfer of the property to the hands of the present management. Quite a little of retrospective interest to publishers might be tdld of this first period, but it would mostly be shop talk and hardly appropriate to this occasion. I will, therefore, pass it by with a brief characterization. The jour- nalistic methods followed throughout this period corresponded roughly to those then and since largely employed by American farmers and known as " extensive " agriculture, in contrast with the " intensive " agriculture now gradually coming into use. The '' extensive " plan means planting a large area with little prepara- tion or cultivation and obtaining a sparse crop. The " intensive " ^plan is, of course, the reverse. The paper with the long name, ' while having dry goods for its principal topic, purported also to cover finance, commerce, transportation and insurance, to which Immodest list, religion was added later. Against the specialized competition of the present day, such a paper as that would last about as long as the proverbial snowball in the unpleasant here- after. But in those times the paper had no real opposition and it flourished. It was stanchly loyal throughout the war and partly perhaps for this reason, it made during the years that followed, say from 1865 to 1874, what were then considered exceptional profits. From this point on, however, it began to decline. Times changed. The paper did not change. Its trade, the dry goods trade, growing by leaps and bounds, called for ex- clusive and more intelligent treatment. The paper showed no initiative, but remained stereotyped in an outgrown routine. The industry, which it should have led, caught up with it, passed it and by 1888 had left it far behind. This was the close of the paper's second period. The third period, which reaches to the present time, began when myself and asso- ciates took over what was left of this property and started in to rebuild it on an up-to-date foundation. The task which con- IN INDUSTRIAL JOURNALISM 17 fronted the new management was no less than that of bringing about a resurrection ; for the bones were very dry that were to be clothed with flesh and blood and to have breathed into them the breath of life. First of all, intensive methods had to be intro- duced to replace the scattering policy which had conducted the old paper to the verge of the grave. All subjects extraneous to dry goods were stricken from its heading. The long straggling title was telescoped into three words, " Dry Goods Economist," the paper itself, which for years had been the biggest broadside sheet printed in this country, needing a good big room to open it up in, was gradually reduced to the then standard quarto size and its mechanical appearance worked up to the average good practice of the day. Far more important, however, than all these external improvements were the radical changes in edi- torial policy which took place during the first two years, and which were imperatively necessary if the paper was to catch step again with the trade which had practically slipped away from it. Without this change, indeed, all minor betterments would have been in vain. During the first two periods the paper had been conducted almost exclusively in the interest of the wholesale division of the trade. It looked to the manufacturer, the importer, the commission house and the jobber for everything; for news, for prices, for opinions, for subscriptions and for advertising. The retailer was known to exist and that was about all. Neither he nor his interests were a factor under the old regime. In the beginning, this position was the logical one for such a publica- tion, for previous to about 1870 the manufacturer and the im- porter domiinated the situation. Whatever the manufacturer produced, and whatever the importer imported, the retailer re- ceived meekly and did the best he could with them ; but im- perceptibly the situation began to change. The scepter of power gradually passed from the wholesaler to the retailer, until within a comparatively few years their relative positions were exactly reversed, and what the American retailer demanded the manufacturers not only of this country, but all others, sedulously sought to produce. This change in the relative weight of the wholesaler and the retailer has come to pass in many trades, but in none other probably is it so conspicuous as in dry goods and department store merchandise. This radical transformation the old management had failed to recognize, but it was promptly forced upon the attention of the new proprietors and the " Econ- omist " was turned squarely around with its face to the retail merchant. -r J k' [y i8 LECTURES IN THE FORUM This alteration in the position of trade forces is the basis of some of the most important changes and developments that have taken place in business journalism. The keen publisher of every trade paper, as distinguished from the technical paper, in other words, the paper whose topic is distribution, has discovered that his most influential as well as his most numerous clients are the ultimate distributers, and he shapes his course accordingly. The management of the " Economist " during its third period have never lost sight of this fundamental fact. They were among the earliest to see in the dry goods retailer the Atlas, whose shoulders support the whole textile world and in his store the Rome to which all dry goods roads lead. They, therefore, cast the lot of the new " Economist " in with the retailer and sought to make of it at once his ally, his advocate and the medium of his expression. Such, in outline, were the means taken to bring the dignified old journal, lagging quietly along in the rear of the dry goods procession, up into the van once more among the leaders of the industry. This is a typical experience of high-class trade papers. Of the high-class technical papers, the experience is probably paral- lel. ]\Iany of them have to do with industries in which the manu- facturer is his own ultimate distributer. In those cases, as, for example, where the first buyer of a machine is also its consumer, it is he to whom the chief appeal of the paper must be made. Time would fail me to trace, in detail, the development of business editing since business journals began to appear. Per- haps a single example from our own records will sufficiently in- dicate the gulf which separates the past and the present. Every line of the old " Dry Goods Reporter " was dignified and stately. At the comparatively free and easy colloquialism with which we now write the paper, our revered predecessors would have stififened with horror, and a lapse into slang would have shocked them out of all propriety. On the other hand, if we, in this year of grace, were to indulge in the " fine writing " which was their constant aim and study, I fear the small boys of the dry goods district would be tempted to throw bricks at us in the street. Think on our probable fate if w^e were to commence an editorial on manufacturing with observations like these, which are taken from the earliest undefaced issue of the " Dry Goods Reporter," in 1849, that we have in our possession : " Many think that all which is necessary to success in this pursuit is an unfailing supply of water with a fall sufficient to turn a large wheel or a steam engine with a IN INDUSTRIAL JOURNALISM 19 sufficiency of fuel. Consequently we see the leaping rivu- lets all over the country turned into artificial channels and put to servile labor; or the iron horse whose course we so much admire as he snorts and foams along his nar- row track, sans most his rocking limbs, is ' cabined, cribbed, confined ' to perform the same drudgery. Have those who thus dash at once into this intricate path, bent upon producing something for the world's use or wear, any just idea of the magnitude or real difficulties of the undertaking? The reckless course, the bitter disappoint- ment of many of them answer this in the negative, and we think it no exaggeration to say that fully one-half of those who engage in this pursuit have either no definite aim or are totally unfit to accomplish it." This is simply the 1849 method of saying that many " dubs " fail as manufacturers. Any kind of a talk about newspapers of any kind which ignored the subject of advertising would be like the play of Hamlet with the part of the melancholy Dane omitted. Adver- tising is one thread upon which all modern periodical publishing is strung. I remember once being asked to read a paper on " Trade Journalism and its Relation to Advertising " and I started in as follows : " A trade journal and advertising are every sort of relation to each other, father and child, husband and wife, brother, sister, grandmother and cousin. I guess they may be said to be connected by every tie known to consanguinity or marriage." This was said a good many years ago, and I stand by it to-day. The sam^e statement is true of almost every other branch of publishing, but perhaps in no other is it so em- phatically true as of business papers ; and this for the reason that in trade papers advertising is not an extraneous thing, separate and apart from the publication itself, as in the case of the daily or the magazine, but is an integral part of the paper, and neces- sary to obtaining and keeping a subscription list. The reader of a daily or a religious paper would hardly notice a scarcity or even an entire lack of advertising, because he is looking only for what the writers of the paper have to say. But a dealer who takes a shoe or a drug or a hardware paper, for example, if he were to find in it little or no advertising, would infallibly register a protest at once on the ground that he was failing to get a considerable part of the information and instruction for which he was paying. In the upward progress of the business paper its advertising 20 LECTURES IN THE FORU^I has developed and strengthened quite as much as its editorial work, and if it has grown greatly in amount it has grown even more greatly as a factor in business. I can only indicate in the briefest manner the general change which has come over trade paper advertising. In the old days of the " Dry Goods Re- porter," before it had, like Saul of Tarsus, seen a great light and taken a new name and a new attitude toward its life work, the advertising which it carried was for the most part as stilted and as weak as the editorial style of which I have quoted a sample. Most of the wholesalers of that old day had no intelli- gent purpose or plan of publicity, but being pushed up to the point of advertising by external or internal pressure, proceeded at once to what they considered the only important part of the transaction, viz., to buy as little space as they could get off for, for the lowest possible price. This being accomplished it mat- tered little what was put into space so long as staid dignity was maintained and nothing said which a sharp buyer would be in- terested to hear. I well remember an experience in illustration of this ancient frame of mind which I had when soliciting busi- ness down in the dry goods district about twenty-five years ago. A large and respected customer of mine had a lot of stufif that was specially good value for the price, just the sort of thing to attract buyers and help to sell his regular merchandise. He also had some space to use on a contract with us, and I naturally pounced on this lot of goods as just the thing to make a drawing advertisement, but the merchant was horrified at the idea. " What," said he, " put that in the paper and let everA'body else know just what I've got?" He was willing to put in his busi- / ness card, but insisted that he must not reveal any secrets as to what particular articles he had on hand. Talleyrand, I believe it was, expressed the opinion that lan- guage is primarily a means of concealing thought, and so my old friend and other merchants of his ilk seemed to regard advertising as mainly useful for a similar purpose. The re- luctance with which they abandoned the old-fashioned reticence so out of keeping with the spirit of this age of publicity was one of the great stumbling blocks in the path of progressive trade journals. For a long time it kept them at the task of making bricks without straw, of trying to demonstrate their usefulness and to produce results with passive or so called " director}^ " advertising, which served simply to inform the seeker after goods instead of with the active aggressive advertising, which awakens and tempts buyers and makes customers out of casual readers. It was really a curious phenomenon, not easy to ex- IN INDUSTRIAL JOURNALISM 21 plain in the face of the object lesson which even then was freely furnished by retailers who, in their advertising, showed the opposite policy and achieved their great success through taking the whole world into their confidence in every detail of their business. Reticence in regard to anything that a possible buyer might want to know was long ago discarded by the retailer, and I cannot tell why it took the wholesaler so long to see that his problem did not differ in principle. The art of advertising, as I apprehend it, consists essentially in talking to a hundred or a hundred thousand buyers with as nearly as possible the same force and freedom that the advertiser would display in talking to a single buyer in his own office. The reticence of the manu- facturer and wholesaler was, however, gradually broken down and with a higher and more appreciative attitude toward trade paper advertising on their part, this advertising improved in its art and its psychology and in its drawing power, until now the best advertising in the best business papers is perhaps the best advertising now done in the world. I have referred to advertising as the cord on w^hich pretty much all publishing is strung and that is quite correct. But let us change the metaphor and call it one of the two principal foundation stones on which all our periodical publications are , built. The other foundation stone is the second-class postal law. This law, passed by Congress in 1879 and amended in 1885, by / reducing the rate of postage on newspapers and periodicals to / one cent per pound, gave to American newspaper publishing the greatest impulse which it ever received. Note the relation of these two foundation stones to the structure which rests upon them. Without the cheap, efficient and prompt distribution granted to papers by this postal law, the dissemination of the business press would probably never have reached its large and influential proportions. The cost of circulation under ordinary postage rates or through any other agency than the Post Office, w'ould certainly not only have stunted the size of trade and technical newspapers, but would have made it necessary to charge a subscription rate so much higher as to restrict the editions. Restricted editions would have been so much less attractive as advertising mediums that the amount of advertising carried would have been meager in comparison with the volume which now renders the trade and technical press by far the favorite means of communication between the sources of supply and the ultimate distributer or the user. How well these two, cheap postage and advertising, have cooperated to the service and benefit of the business community, who are the sub- 22 LECTURES IN THE FORUM scribers, may be seen from this fact : the cost of business papers to their readers has not risen in common with most other com- modities, but has remained stationary or tended to decrease, while the size, quality and value of the papers have steadily increased. To illustrate with the example of the " Dry Goods Econ- omist," the price of the paper, at its inception in 1846, was five dollars a year and its price in 191 5 is the same. I do not assert that the paper was not worth its price in the beginning, but I can safely say that it is worth to its reader now at least ten times as much as it was then. That this greatly enhanced value is still obtainable at the same price is due entirely to the two causes mentioned, the cheap postage and the paid-for advertising. Keen competition has compelled the publishers of the business newspapers, and of most other periodicals for that matter, to pass along to their subscribers every saving like that of cheap postage which they are able to make. The American public has become educated to receiving its reading matter at a cost which does not cover the mechanical expense of production. There is, therefore, a wide gap between this cost and the subscription re- ceipts of almost every newspaper and the only way in which this gap can be bridged is by using receipts from advertising. It will thus be seen that advertising has not only the func- tion of informing and giving profitable suggestion to subscribers, but of paying most of the cost of the continual and expensive improvements in the paper itself, so that the latter may be sold to the subscriber at a nominal figure. This important function of advertising seems not to be generally recognized. I have on a good many occasions appeared before Congressional committees having under consideration proposals for repealing the second- class postal law and replacing it with one imposing a rate of postage which would compel publishers to increase subscription prices largely or to go out of business. I have on such occa- sions found an almost immovable conviction among Congress- men that, subscribers having paid for the cost of the paper, the advertising carried is clear profit to the publisher, and of such dimensions that he ought willingly to pay double or quadruple rates of postage. Nor do I think my best efforts ever succeeded in conveying to the minds of our Federal legislators that it takes not only the cheap postage, but nearly all the advertising income of any liberally conducted business newspaper, to provide the business community with their absolutely indispensable news- papers at a price within the means of the humblest merchant or mechanic. IN INDUSTRIAL JOURNALISM 23 Let us now consider briefly the functions of the trade and technical newspapers. I will premise by saying that as business is adjusted to-day, it is safe to assert that were it possible to suddenly wipe out the business press of this country, the progress of our industry, commerce, finance and transportation would re- ceive an abrupt check, which would not be removed until means were found to restore this essential factor, or to discover some substitute for it. In illustration of this vital connection between the business paper and the interests with which it is allied, let me once more refer to the position and activities of the " Dry Goods Economist." For the last quarter of a century this paper has been getting closer and closer to its trade till it has actually become one with it. The " Economist " to-day and for years past has not rested on the dry goods trade or beside it; it has been welded into it, or to state the fact a little differently, the blood of the whole dry goods body courses through its veins. This result has been accomplished through persistent adherence to a single idea — that of Service. Now servicers a short word, but it stands for a very com- prehensive policy. Let me mention some of its important fac- tors. The furnishing of information is, of course, one of them ; information carefully gathered, weighed and explained, informa- tion in regard to merchandise of nearly fifty dififerent depart- ments. In service to the subscriber there must also be instruc- tion for that Targe class of merchandisers who are still in the primary grades and this instruction must be given line upon line and precept upon precept. How thoroughly the paper has fulfilled this condition of service may be judged from the freely admitted fact that the " Dry Goods Economist " has done more than any other single factor to raise, during the last twenty years, the level of mercantile practice in its trade throughout the coun- try to a higher and more uniform level. Another element of service which is rather peculiar to the " Dry Goods Economist " is that of prophecy. In no other trade in the world does the quickly shifting element of fashion play so commercial a role as in dry goods. The correct gauging of the coming fashion changes and the adjustments of buying thereto practically means the difference between loss and profit to almost every dry goods concern. The " Economist " has here, therefore, a role somewhat analogous to that of the Government weather bureau. It is obliged by the position of leadership which it has assumed to constantly maintain observers upon all the fashion watch-towers of the world, to catch the earliest indication of the probable trend of fashions for at least 24 LECTURES IX THE FORUM one year ahead ; and it carries the heavy responsibihty of an- nouncing discoveries and forecasts which affect the purchase of millions of dollars" worth of merchandise and aid in the forma- tion of the decisions of hundreds of thousands of women as to their selection of articles of dress for the coming season. Another development by this paper of the function of in- struction is the establishment of a school for young men in the '^ art of window trimmings and the technique of advertising and salesmanship. The graduates of this institution, which is known as the Economist Training School, are much in demand and some hundreds of them are occupying positions with good concerns all over the United States. Still another such develop- ment has been the formation by the paper of a subsidiary' com- pany, which acts as the intimate personal business counselor and \j advertising and sales suggestor to many hundreds of retail dry goods concerns scattered through all the states of the Union. The last and perhaps the most important function of the typical business newspaper is leadership, which carries with it I /the duty to fearlessly rebuke abuses, as well as to point to higher methods and standards. The " Dr\' Goods Economist," for ex- ample, has dared to step out of and beyond the old accepted activities of a trade journal and to take an active part in the business of those who look to it. It originates and it advises. It will tell a merchant how to build or remodel his store and i how to arrange his stock therein. It will even furnish him working plans that will enable him to carry out the scheme suggested. It will help him find the leak or sickness in a droop- ed ing department and offer him a plan to remedy it. It will re- ^ model his accounting for him. It will advise him for or against the introduction of a new department. It will counsel him in regard to the management of his insurance or in regard to accepting or rejecting a form of contract. Directly or through its subsidiaries it will help him to increase the efficiency of his local advertising and it will do many other things for him here- tofore considered wholly foreign to the scope of a newspaper. How practical and efficient this broad service is, is shown by several applications which the paper has received from ingenuous merchants in distant localities, for a price at which the publisher would agree to let each of them be the only subscriber to the " Dry Goods Economist " in his town in order that his competitors might lack the advantages of its guidance. The high-class business paper exercises a function of equal importance towards its advertisers. It must and does, not only as a matter of duty towards its customer, but also as a matter IN INDUSTRIAL JOURNALISM 25 of self-protection, seek to educate its clients in broad and effi-^*^ cient methods of publicity. It must and does, therefore, do more than furnish space for the announcements of those desiring them. It must and does formulate and execute broad plans of publicity for its customers, plans which its intimate knowledge of the busi- . ness of the individual customer and the whole trade best fits it to ] do ; and in this work it employs every tool or means which it | ^ knows to be efficient and economical for the special purpose in view, and rejects every means and medium which is wasteful or inappropriate, even though its use might bring much more profit to itself or to some intermediary. These forms of extra effort for the benefit of the subscriber and the advertiser respectively, constitute what is now quite generally termed " SpeciaL.Seryice "; a term and a practice which so far as the business press is concerned was originated in the office of the " Dry Goods Economist " and by its present Presi- dent. This closes my specific references to that paper. I do not feel it necessary to apologize for the frequent occurrence of its name and methods, but I wish to explain once more that this was only because that is the paper I know best, and because its history and character lend themselves well to the purposes of this talk. Had I equal familiarity with others of the dozen peers of the " Dry Goods Economist " among the business press, I would gladly have drawn my illustration from their experience. I have now given some facts pertaining to the origin and history of the business press together with its functions in rela- tion to its subscribers and its advertisers. It remains for me to speak briefly of the present status of this splendid grand divi- sion of journalism. Trade and technical newspapers have reached their present position in spite of obstacles which have impeded, but could not prevent their growth toward their right- ful stature and standing. The chief of these obstacles — the one which practically includes them all — has been Ignorance. Now, there are some enterprises in this world which thrive on igno- rance. The less people know about their inside workings the better for the enterprises. Business publishing is not in this -v, class. For many years one of the chief labors of the editor and ^ publisher in this field has been to make the people who ought to be in close and constant touch with them, understand the aims, the methods, the equipment and the possibilities of the paper under their charge. But it has been slow work. The should-be subscriber has, because uninformed too often, decided that $2.00 or $3.00 or $5.00 a year was too much to spend when, if he had realized the potential profit he was rejecting, he would 26 LECTURES IN THE FORUM readily have paid $50.cx3 rather than miss it. The should-be advertiser too often, dazzled perhaps by an ambitious programme of general publicity urged upon him, and unaware of the special knowledge of his peculiar problems possessed by his trade or technical paper, has turned his back upon his natural, most economical and most efficient advertising counselor and execu- tant. The large advertising agency, dependent for success upon , heavy appropriations, has too often, simply from lack of informa- tion, ignored the trade or technical paper whose cooperation would often save both agency and client from a disastrous cam- paign. The Federal Legislature has under misapprehension W I attacked and harassed the business press in its relations with I the Post Office. But happily the persistence of the publishers and the insistence of practical experience have made heavy in- roads upon this deadening ignorance, and all classes concerned are coming more and more to comprehend and to respect the business newspapers and the service which they render to the whole commerce of the nation. I do not wish to trespass upon the ground which will be occupied by the eminent class journalists who are scheduled to follow me in this series of lectures, but I feel justified in adding, in conclusion, something about the future. There are now, and probably will always be, two kinds of