A FEW WORDS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 380, 2 May 1908, Page 2

A FEW WORDS.

Tins conceptions some people have of how a newspaper is financed, is simply marvellous — the outcome of thoughtlessness and ignorance. In the minds of certain individuals the newspaper man is a person who performs miracles through the agency of strange gcds whereby he is enabled to pay his staff, provide an expensive plant, purchase stocks, feed, house, and . clothe those dependent upon him, pay rents and taxes, and do a hundred and one things without receiving remuneration in proportion to what other tradesmen expect and receive for their labour or goods. A young lady once left a neatly written c.ird with the writer, inviting him to attend a public social function. Advertising the affair was nervously suggested to the fair one, and she replied, “Oh, no, we’re not going to advertise, as we are keeping down expenses ; but we are giving you a complimentary ticket, and want you to give us a good report.’’ Poor simple soul ! Again, the eyes of others bulge when told what a certain advertisement will cost, and would go away quite content if told that the item would be inserted without cost, as news. We wonder what the grocer or draper would say if we sent one of our staff for a bag of sugar or a dozen of calico, and tendered them as in payment thereot. Don’t you see the point? The Herald is a local iustitutio'n, bringing money into the town and circulating it locally, and is entitled to local support. Some business people have not learnt the value or the art of advertising, and begrudge the few pounds they do spend annually, and say advertising is useless —they are penny wise and pound foolish —but if a little paragraph should appear in the paper, which touches them “on the raw,” it’s marvellous the notice they take of it. Further, an advertiser’s or a subscriber’s corn is pressed, and when he comes to withdraw his advertisement or stop his subscription, with a fine air of scorn, one would almost be led to believe that the bottom was about to fall out of the business ! The policy of a newspaper cannot please everybody, but so long as it presses towards the mark for the betterment of the people and the district in which it is published, render it all the assistance in s'our power, and don’t forget the newspaper is not a charitable institution, but gives as good value for its money as any other business firm does for its wares.