Journalism And Advertising

The daily nevvspaper proas owcs is i charaeter for abiüty and onterprise to its ■ pecuniary resources, and the main source of its revenue is advcrfcisin.q;. The riehest journal in the wcrld - the ona th&t has the most immense business - is the London Times, and it ia, loy goneral consent, the ablest and most influential. The leading New York papers rank highest in general nierit and iniiuence and this side of the Atlantic for the ver same reason that the London Tirnss stands at tho hoad oi' the press on the other. There is, of course, a certain superiority of position to be taken uto the account. The place whero a daily paper is published gives it an important advautage over the oue less favorably situated. London, in the opposite hemisphere, and New York ia this, are the great ceutres of uews from all quarters of the habitable ylobe ; atd iu that single fact the jouruals of those two cities, as compared with the provincial press, possess a meaus of excellence whieh, while not tO be attributed to them as a merit, though it is so accredited by the unreflectiug public, forms a most esscntial coudition of their relativo superiority. But even this circumstance, contributing, as it doubtless dees, to secure them an extraordinary cireulation, with a corresponding advertising patronage, would not alone enable the metropoHtan jouruals to reach and maintain the elevated status they enjoy, in point of üterary eharaoter, soeial power, and wide spread populanty. If they wero not sustaiued by a most gencrous local support in their ad vertisiiig columns Ihey would necessarily, notwitbstanding all other advantages, decline in vigor, iuteresís aud reputation. We ueed hardly teil any man of sense that it costs an euormous weekly expense to employ intelligent correspondents in every corner of the world, and to maintaiu all the other numerou.s agencies, near and remote, which are required to giithcr and report the ampie and varied material for the news columns of the Londan Times at;d the principal New York papers. But iheir business reveuues are far more thau equal. So niuuh, theu, for tlio suurce to which the juurnalism of London and New York owes its superiority in general character, ubtlity, aud iufluencc. Let us consider uow, biiefly, the moral aud economie utiüty of advertising. There are three prime reasons why every commuuity should support it own local press iu the on'y practicable mode in which it can, as we have uxplained, be really supported. In the first )lace, a man who is i-eekiug custom in any branch of Irade must invite and attraet t by noloriety. Business will not go to tho house orshop un Bolicited, aud could not, il' it would,fÍ!id it iu obscurity. It is a fact, uttested by universal experience, that tho merehaut or mauufaeturer who is bast known - who is. in o: her words, best advertised through the newspapers - has the best run of custom. But there are eertain old es'ablished concerns, whieh either have business cnough, or which faucy that they eau rely entirëlj on their ao.quired reputation. To these we would remark, in the second place, that they should, nevertheles-, advertise liberally in their owu local press. With them, regard for the general prosperily of their city ought to begin where the mere necessity of their individual business succes eeases to opérate. The advertising columns of a daily newspaper form a soit of mirror, in which the general character (if a great commercial metropolis is reflected to the eye of the world. Peopleat a distanee judgeof a city, in its business conditions and otherwisc, by the evideuces of activity. enterprise, wealth and commeree which it presenta in the pages of its press In the very same article of the Tribune f rom which we havo quoted the estimatcd :ggregatö of money expended annnally by the business classes of Ne# York in newspnpers Eidvertising, the editor says : " We count this among the influences which are stoadily eoncentrating the wholesale trade of the country upou New York." But,say those of our merchants who have enough trade without inviting more through uowspapers. " How are we interested in increasing the general commered of the community?" The answer is, first, you are interested from a just patriotic p ide iu tho place óf your birth or residenee ; and if that fall, then, Éeeondly you are ownors of real estáte and of stocks in local iustitutious and improvt-meuts, or aro otherwise oonoerned iu the cotnmon prosperity and happiüess of ihe fioeiety iu the midst of whieh you dweil. Thirdly, and finally, the men who neither advertise their business to increase it, nor from a desire to advanco, by publishing far and wide, the commercial character of their city, should vet do so for the pui-pose of creating and establishing a high-toned and able local press. Thero is mnoh involved in this that would dcfiay, ten thousaud fold, in gen eral soeial benefit, the small yearly charge that would fall on each individual. If rightly conducted, all the iuterests of public moráis and religión, of popular inteilligence and virtue,of civil peaoe and order, ure bound up in the influenoe of a local daily press. Journalisin, as we have declared, can nowhere be pure, digniiied and intellcctual, unless it is idequatoly supported by the moral, refiued, and educated classes. Here, thon, is a reason, and a most poworful one, too, why those who value a newspaper press only for its influenoo on the popular heart and mind nhould gonerously eutain it, in tho only possibje way in which it oan be properly and pcrmanently eustaiuod. If they will not do this, then to the estept to which tliey withhcld their patronage, they throw the journalist upon the support of those to -yhoni be is ooiiipeHed, in self defense, to yield a reluotant Ruborvicníy. For those reasons, therlbcc, '.Thicli might bo urged at muoh greater length, we say to such of our iiti'ens as desire to see the journalism of Philadelpliia improved in character and influenco - advertise.