The Exhibitor (1965)

The Trade Paper Read by Choice-Not by Chance Pounded In 1918. Published weekly except first issue in January and first issue in September by Jay Emanuel Publications, Incorporated. General offices at 317 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107. Publishing office at 109 Market Place, Baltimore, Md. 21202. New York field office: 1600 Broadway, Suite 604, New York 10019, West Coast field office: William M. Schary, 818 S. Curson Ave., Los Angeles, Calif. 90036. London Bureau: Jock MacGregor, 16 Leinster Mews, London, W. 2, England. Jay Emanuel, publisher and gen. mgr.: Albert Erlick, editor; George Frees Nonamaker, feature editor; Mel Konecoff, New York editor; Albert J. Martin, advertising manager; Max Cades, business manager. Subscriptions: $2 per year (50 issues); and outside of the United States, Canada and Pan-American countries, $5 per year (50 issues). Special rates for two and three years on apolication. Single copy 25fi. Second class postage paid at Baltimore, Maryland. Address all official communications to the Philadelphia offices. Telephone: Area Code 215, WAInut 2-1860. Volume 73 • No. I January 27, 1965 OUR 47th YEAR ADVERTISING MYTHS AND REALITIES In 1964, the major distribution companies and leading independents released 212 feature films. Of this number, 150 or slightly better than 70 per cent were advertised in at least one of the motion picture trade publications. These figures are better than they were in 1963, as far as the trade press is concerned, and they also reflect other inter¬ esting and important facts. Without mentioning names (dis¬ tribution advertising men know what their attitudes toward trade advertising are), it is evident from our trade media records that those companies that made the most use of trade advertising reflected the greatest improvements in business throughout the year. There are those executives who disparage the value of the trade press. They like it for planting puff stories, but they choose to concentrate their advertising elsewhere. They are entitled to take this position, but we are entitled to point out that their financial statements were not too good as the year ended. We choose to believe that there is a connection between good business and making effective use of advertising media of proven value. We are reminded of a very sharp business¬ man who was approached by an eager adviser. “Don’t you realize,” the adviser said, “that half the money you spend on advertising is wasted?” “Certainly,” replied the businessman. “The only trouble is I don’t know which half.” Certainly, it is a problem to decide the best way to spend the advertising dollar. However, it is not a total mystery, as some people seem to think. There are guidelines available to help executives make the proper decisions. The manufacturer’s first big job is to keep his retailer in¬ formed as to the product available. In the motion picture industry, as in other industries, the proven method is via the trade press. Circularizing an industry via direct mail is not only costly but wasteful. Generally, this unsolicited and un¬ wanted load of mail winds up in the wastebasket. A survey conducted by any advertiser will prove this. Too often, the exhibitor is in the dark about many of the films he is expected to buy and then sell intelligently to the public. He depends on his trade press to bring some light into that darkness. Otherwise, he is playing Russian roulette and so are his customers. But there is no reason for the advertiser to play Russian roul¬ ette. Available to him is positive proof of a publicati n’s circu¬ lation. Circulation and readership are the barometer, and the emblem of the Audit Bureau of Circulations is a circulation guarantee. ABC eliminates guesswork and quickly takes the air out of inflated claims. Nearly 4,000 top newspapers and maga¬ zines are audited by ABC. Advertisers owe it to themselves and to their stockholders to spend their advertising dollars where they have an assurance of readership. We are proud of the fact that an advertiser to MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR gets what he pays for. He reaches the theatre owners with his sales message. They can’t be expected to do their job without this information. The pur¬ pose of the trade press is not understood by some advertisers. These gentlemen, and happily they are relatively few, visualize the trade press as an organ to spread their puff stories. They miss an important point. Unless the trade press serves its readers first, it loses the power to serve its advertisers at all. The finest sales message in the woi'ld is lost if nobody reads it, and nobody reads those publications that are simply an advertiser’s mouthpiece. This is not trade journalism— it is prostitution. We subscribe to the theory that readership is dependent on a free, outspoken editorial policy formulated and prac¬ ticed without advertising pressure. We feel that in this way we can forge a bond of trust between us and our subscribers. This bond is the best assurance that an advertiser can get that his sales message is being seen and believed. We will not editorially support an advertiser simply because he is an advertiser. We will not punish an individual or a company simply because they are not advertisers. We will continue to tell the truth as we see it— and have seen it for the past 47 years. No trade paper can exist without the advertising support of the industry it serves. In the long run, the only important factor in placing advertising must be to help increase sales and profits. We happen to believe that our readers are men of intelligence and good sense. We happen to believe that if they didn’t trust our editorial pages, they wouldn’t trust our advertising pages either. Really, it is as simple as that. A fellow publisher recently remarked to us that he was surprised at the fact that we enjoyed the continuing support of our advertisers despite our outspoken editorials that had been sharply critical of some of them. We told him that as soon as we began to be afraid to print the truth— then our advertisers would be justified in ceasing to support us. Ap¬ parently, we fired him with some of our own enthusiasm for a free, tough-minded press for he vowed to get a lot sharper in his own editorial policy as well. That was a while back, and we are still waiting. Our friend still hasn’t found the courage to take off his editorial gloves and do a little slugging for the things in which he believes. We hope he will. After all, that’s what honest trade journalism is all about, isn’t it? When you come right down to it, that’s what trade adver¬ tising is all about, too. As the Wall Street Journal once said, “No one is more responsive to advertising than the man who keeps getting ahead in business.” We have always maintained that the publication which serves its readers first— serves its advertisers best.