The New Foreign Advertising Situation
By Frank Jenkins, Editor of the Eugene Register
It has been only a few years since the mention of foreign advertising in any well conducted newspaper office was pretty certain to bring a bored, if not a pained, expression to the face of the publisher. In those days, foreign advertising usually meant medicine advertising, and obtaining a foreign contract was a sort of endurance contest in rate slashing——the publisher who could cut the deepest got the job. Add to this the fact that collection was often a slow and tedious task, bound up with an undue amount of red tape, and it is not hard to realize why the average publisher was not greatly interested in foreign advertising in those days.
And, incidentally, let us be perfectly fair all around. The blame did not rest wholly on the advertiser or the advertising agent. Most publishers did not have fixed and dependable rates, and at least a majority of them could be “jewed down.” It was also too often considered perfectly legitimate to lie like a German official communique about circulation.
But now the whole situation relating to foreign advertising has changed. Mention foreign business in these days to any wide awake publisher and his face will light up like a summer sunrise. Foreign advertising now is the most interesting of all the fields from which the newspaper draws business, and in my opinion it is the field that is capable of greatest enlargement and development. The publisher who approaches the foreign advertising problem with intelligence and industry is certain to profit.
But all I have said hitherto is academic—what we all want to know about foreign advertising is how to get it. We know what it is and how the field has widened in the last two or three years.
Circulation Factor in Advertising
The first step in the direction of getting foreign advertising is building up a circulation which the publisher can offer to his customer with complete confidence in its pulling power. Cover your field thoroughly—whether the field be small or large. If you do that, you can be assured of results, and it is results that will hold your foreign business and keep it growing. A satisfied customer is just as important in the newspaper business as elsewhere.
Another point that is important is never to neglect requests for circulation information. Don’t hesitate to take time to make out all reports that are asked for, it will pay every time. If possible, become a member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations; at least segregate and list your circulation so you can give accurate information on it at any time.
Get a good eastern representative. His commissions may look a little large to you at first, but the additional amount of business you will get will much more than make up the difference. It is important to pick out a live man who will give good attention to your field, for a poor business getter is worse than no representative at all. Keep him well supplied with information bearing on your circulation and your territory.
No discussion of foreign advertising, no matter how brief, can overlook the
