Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

PUBLISHERS PUT A LIGHT IN THE WINDOW FOR THE DOLLARS THAT STRAYED TO TV NAEA convention hears report of ANPA plans for a campaign aimed at major tv sponsors, research planned to turn up unfavorable evidence against television. Projected teen-age newspaper readership survey listed as part of Bureau of Advertising campaign in 'Year of the Needle/ to 'make your eyes pop/ THE American Newspaper Publishers Assn.'s Bureau of Advertising is preparing a "doublebarreled frontal attack" in the 1956 national media battle, much of it to be concentrated on its most potent competitor, television. Over 700 members of the Newspaper Advertising Executives Assn. were promised by the ANPA bureau it will fight with a program to gain new advertising dollars and regain old ones — viz., those in the beer, coffee and tea, cereal, dentifrice, cosmetic and toilet soap categories. Newspapers took "quite a beating" in those classifications on general advertising (all national save automotive), it was acknowledged last week. ANPA's Bureau of Advertising will launch a "positive" campaign for newspapers generally and a "competitive" one against tv on the premise of claims that network tv competition for audience has intensified and sponsor expenditures have risen concomitant with "smaller ratings." Harold S. Barnes, bureau director, sounded the keynote when he held up a card titled, "The Year of the Needle." The bureau intends to "needle" tv with. . . . • An intensified drive aimed at major tv sponsors, comparing tv dollars with what they would buy in newspaper lineage and consisting of weekly letters to sponsors in a bid to convince them "they have less and less control" over what those tv dollars will buy. • Two new research projects, one calculated to "turn up further unfavorable evidence on television" and the other a game designed for use by newspaper salesmen and retail accounts. It's called "Sponsor. Sponsor. Who Is the Sponsor?" and is intended to show low percentage of sponsor identification, as contended by the Chicago Tribune. A national survey of teen-age newspaper readership promising "powerful ammunition both for newspapers and against tv" also is planned. Mr. Barnes said comparisons on tv and newspaper dollars will "make your eyes pop." while field-testing of the sponsor quiz assures results will "knock your hat off — and your retailers' too." On the former project, the bureau would present material in showing what the sponsor pays for, say, the Lux Video Theatre and the pro-rated cost of three stations carrying the program in, for example, Ames, Sioux City and Waterloo, all Iowa — or about $72,000. This sum would then be used to illustrate what could be purchased in the way of lineage in every one of 43 Iowa daily papers (16,500 lines for $72,000). The bureau stresses that "we're not comparing the respective merits of tv and newspapers" and that "we're merely showing what those tv dollars would buy in newspapers in the same markets." The bureau's presentation highlighted last weeks three-day annual convention of NAEA at the Edgewater Beach Hotel, Chicago. Karl T. Finn, Cincinnati Times-Star, succeeded Wilson Condict, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, as NAEA president. Delegates were also told — by Vincent Bliss, president of Earle Ludgin & Co., Chicago — that newspapers have withstood tv "better than other media" and have grown circulationwise and in performance. Both have prospered as the "supreme mass media," he said because of the "tidal surge of mass-class buying," Mr. Bliss made these other points: (1) Tv is still the fastest growing industry but its "blinding rise" (in terms of strong emotional effect) has ended. (2) Tv "cannibalized" radio, which is "still alive but all warped out of shape." (3) Color tv is "scarcely a trend yet" but newspaper color is here. (4) Television has become "fearsomely high," he added. . . . "It is so costly that major programs are becoming impossible to consider for any but an ever-narrowing group of giants. Nothing suggests any change and it is the big operator who can pay for the big programs who also gets the most for his advertising dollar." Mr. Bliss described 1955 as "our biggest" (at Ludgin) for both tv and newspapers. His agency derived about $6 million in tv billings out of an overall $10 million-plus last year. High cost factor of tv also was discussed by Walter Kurz, advertising director of the Chicago Tribune, in a talk Wednesday. Discussing "Facts, Fable and Fantasy in Tv Land" (theme of the recent Tribune surveys which purport to show low sponsor identification among viewers), Mr. Kurz urged newspaper executives to stop worrying and spend more time selling their own medium. He said that tv is "not a good medium for most advertisers," but has "opened our eyes to bigger advertising budgets." lames J Nance, president of StudebakerPackard Corp., South Bend, Ind., addressed the Monday luncheon meeting. He cited television's rise as among new developments which have made "their impact felt almost overnight" and warned against businessmen's complacency. He noted that over 75% of American families have purchased tv receivers the past eight years and claimed "the effects have been far-reaching on the sale of a variety of products on advertising, on marketing techniques and on the whole entertainment world." James W. Petty Jr., general merchandising manager, H & S Pogue Co., Cincinnati, took exception to notions that newspaper color is here and accused them of "lethargy" in that activity. He noted vast network expenditures for color tv and claimed newspapers would have to improve their color reproductions if they are to "continue to get the greater part of my advertising dollars." He pointed out that networks realize that "color is probably the most important selling force in the world today." RAB Releases Magazine Survey RADIO Advertising Bureau has released to its member stations, networks, national spot representatives and advertisers a circulation report on seven leading consumer magazines. The RAB report, claimed to be the only recent circulation comparison made on a countyto-county basis, was issued to members as a reference source for planning radio campaigns. The magazines are: Saturday Evening Post, Life, Ladles' Home Journal, McCall's, Look, Better Homes and Gardens, and Good Housekeeping. As an additional service to RAB members, the report goes into a family census by county, listing the number of families as reported in Sales Management's survey of buying power. . AND TVB'S TREYZ FIRES BACK AT BARNES TELEVISION BUREAU of ADVERTISING last week was quick to answer the plans disclosed by Harold S. Barnes, director of the American Newspaper Publishers Assn.'s Bureau of Advertising, for a newspaper-waged "frontal attack" on tv as an advertising medium. TvB President Oliver Treyz said "we respect Mr. Barnes and the Bureau of Advertising as .... a newspaper advertising expert," but that the newspaper bureau "will have to do much more homework before it qualifies as a television expert." For example, he called attention to Mr. Barnes' statement that "tv sponsors are .... getting smaller ratings," and answered: "If he studies recent Nielsen pocket pieces for October through December 1955 and compares them with year-ago findings, he would find the reverse to be true. For Mr. Barnes' information, the rating of the average network tv program is up. Meantime, the number of homes equipped with tv — in the same year-a,go comparison— has increased by 12%. "The number of stations carrying the average network tv program and the percentage of homes it can reach has also increased. As a result, the circulation delivered the average evening network television program has increased by 24%. The rating delivered the average adult daytime serial program (according to the same year-ago Nielsen comparison) has also gone up. The homes delivered by these daytime network programs have increased 47%. "Clearly, no television expert could generalize that 'sponsors are .... getting smaller ratings'." Mr. Treyz continued: "Mr. Barnes reports that the newspapers 'took quite a licking' in such classifications as beer, coffee and tea, cereals, dentrifices, perfumes and cosmetics and toilet soaps. The essential point, however, is that the advertisers — in these classifications — which shifted large investments from newspapers to television scored all-time high sales records. If the newspapers 'took quite a licking,' the advertisers who shifted their budgets away from newspapers to television certainly did not." The TvB head said however, that even "if the newspaper bureau is converting itself into an anti-tv bureau," TvB will not become an "antinewspaper bureau." "We are in business to sell to advertisers the productive use of tv as an advertising medium, not to tear down the newspapers," he asserted. "Copy research, testing the impact of advertisements, shows that a campaign designed deliberately to launch a 'frontal assault' on a specific competitor does not work to the advantage of the advertiser and. usually, is a waste of money. If this be true of advertising — and we believe it is — it is also true of media promotion and selling." He cited a section of the American Assn. of Advertising Agencies' Standard of Practice which holds that "unfair competitive practices" undermine public confidence, and said: "We would like to suggest that if the newspapers, through the Bureau of Advertising, devote their manpower and budgets to building and promoting newspapers, as opposed to negative and unwarranted attacks on competing media, all advertising would be better served." Page 38 • January 30, 1956 Broadcasting • Telecasting