Prtinter and Publishcr

Ed'itorital Chronicle & Comment
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Bank Advertising.
The question as to whether bank advertising
when placed through an agency is 1 cal or foreign,
has been exercising the minds of pablishers, ever
since agencies began to handle this business. It
was touched on at the last meeting of the Canadian
I ress Association and was further discussed at the
conference of the Daily Paper Section and the ad
vertising agencies later in the year.
The question, if we remember aright, was never
definitely settled, though Section 13 of the regula-
tions adopted by the Daily Paper Section on April
Ist, may be held to cover it. Part of this section
reads: "AB branch store or office devoted wholly or
the greater part thereof to the business advertised,
and which is in competition with business already
in 'existence and paying local rates, is to be classi-
fied as a local advertiser aind comes under local
rates, etc."
This section explicitly states that the business
must come into competition with existing busi-
nesses. But in the case of banks in small places,
there may not be this local competition. Is the ad-
vertising on that account to be considered as
foreign ?
Publishers must hold out for their rights in this
matter. A branch bank is as much a local business
as a dry gioods store or a butcher shop.. Before the
agencies took up the matter, the advertising of these
branch banks was simply the concern of the local
manager and the local publisher. The manager un-
derstood the situation and placed his advertising to
suit.
It is short-sighted policy on the part of a bank
to endanger its popularity in any locality by
antagonizing the press. Every element in a busi-
ness community, including newspapers and banks,
should work together for the welfare of the com-
munity. That the banks recognize this was proven
by the statements of several publishers at the Press
Association, who refused to pay any commission
or to accept the business excepting at the full rates
and in every instance they got it on their own terms.
The feeling among the leading publishers is that
commissions should not be allowed under anv con-
sideratioi. It simply means the taking of $I5,ooo

to $20,000 a year out of the pockets of the already
uinderpaid publishers and handing it to a couple of
wealthy agencies. A letter from a Western Ontario
daily on this subject will appear next issue and we
would be glad to have the views of others as the
subject is one of vital importance.
To Encourage Small Advertisers.
A scheme to interest small advertisers has been
put in practise by several American newpapers with
marked success. Finding that the small merchant
was discoiraged because his little ad. was over-
shadowed bv the big advertisements of his more
afflueint competitors, these papers reserved a spe-
cial page with an appropriate heading, on which
they arratnged a series of small non-competitive
advertiserients. In these advertisements they ask-
ed the various merchants to offer special b)rgains.
The Omiaha World-Herald was one of the papers
twhich adopted this special page. Its advertising
manager says:
"The page worked like a charm from the start.
We aimed to get small merchants who were not
consistent advertisers, and induced them to offer
some snecific article at a real bargain price. We
also called attention to the page by an ad. of out
own on the page and some local notices scattered
throughout the paper. The public realized at once
that the page was really a very valuable one to
them, containing such good offers, and the results
in many cases were phenomenal. Where a desir-
able article was really offered at a cut price, the
results were splendid. Where the ad. was more
general, it was harder to trace direct results that
were extraordinary; but the fact that we ran it
-through six weeks in January and February and
have now started it for eight weeks in July and
August-four of which have already gone by with
very pleasitng results-shows that the merchants-
mainly snall ones-are really convinced that they
are getting their full money's worth. Several small
merchants who have been very skeptical as to the
value of newspaper advertising, have told us that
our Bargain Page is the first instance in which
thev have beeni able to trace definite and satis-
factory results from newspaper advertising. For

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January, i9o8