Reel and Slide (Mar-Dec 1918)

REEL and SLIDE Exhibitors Must Sell Screen Space Parallel Seen in Early History of Publishing Business Which Faced Same Problem Decades Passed Before Editors Would Consider Use of Columns for Advertising By W. F. Herzberg (Camel Film Co.) WHATEVER may be the attitude of the motion picture theater owner toward screen publicity now, there are certain fundamental facts which he cannot overlook and with whicli he must reckon to an ever increasing degree. These fundamental facts are merely those which have been the foundation of the publishing business from the earliest period of its history down. And while the application of these fundamentals can and do vary in the picture world, they are of a sufficient general natvire to offer a fair guide. In the first place, the time is not far distant when every theater of every kind will be compelled to run a certain number of paid publicity films. The time is not far distant when it will be just as necessary for the exhibitor to sell his screen space as it is profitable and necessary for even our strongest newspapers to sell their advertiing columns. It will be necessary to do this merely because the day is approaching when the theater man will no longer be in a position to make an adequate return on his investment under present conditions. He must and will turn to the pictures for which he receives money if he is t6 live and prosper. For a great many years after the publishing business got its foothold no editor contemplated the sale of his columns to another man with goods to sell. The publisher was dispensing a certain commodity called news or entertainment and he managed to scratch along, making a bare living, ignorant of the possibilities of exploitation that lay before him and totally unaware that his own prestige and that of his newspaper or periodical could be sold — sold honorably and for the public benefit and at a fair profit. Success Due to Ads As the cost of production increased, it became necessary for the publisher to cast his eyes about for added revenue. He felt that he could not get what he needed from his readers. So he began to accept paid advertising. He did it gingerly at first, with fear and trembling. The most conservative hesitated long before they plunged; for many years a number of them held off. To-day, because of advertising, the publishing business is the most potent force in the world in public education and in the process of civilization. People buy newspapers and magazines for the advertising they contain. This hesitancy on the part of the average exhibitor is natural enough. The idea of adopting what are now ethics in the publishing business does not appeal to him. He is afraid of offending his patrons. He makes no distinction between the screen ad that does offend and the one that does not. He himself buys a magazine that contains seventy per cent advertising and certainly the editor of that magazine does not ask him if he has any objections to its containing advertising columns. Is there any more reason why the theater man should be compelled to consult his patronage regarding the commercial side of his screen? Isn't the parallel identical? I think it is. I also think that the exhibitors generally are coming to look upon it in the same way. No Editor Would Do This Now, it is perfectly within reason for the exhibitor to safeguard his patronage from the kind of screen publicity that is objectionable, that would unduly bore them, that would be offensive because of its obvious advertising features, etc. In this there lies the only practical difference between publicity on the screen and publicity on the printed page ; that the reader is not compelled to read the advertisements in a magazine that do not appeal to him, whereas he is compelled to look at a screen announcement or leave the theater. Therefore, to that extent, it falls upon the responsibility of the exhibitor to edit his advertising, to safeguard his people from all that would be objectionable just as he should do in the selection of his dramatic pictures. That the theater cannot live and prosper without selling a certain per cent of its screen space is a certainty. Rentals now preclude any profit unless the weather is very good or conditions are especially favorable. The margin of profit between a feature that is good and one that is poor is getting narrower all the time. So, the man who rents the films must and will sell his screen space in order to live. I have talked to hundreds of exhibitors throughout the country on this subject. Some of them agreed with me; that they must {Continued on page 20) Each day the employes of the National Cash Register Co. form a huge audience and focus their attention on and listen to speakers supplied by the company the picture screen