Motion Picture News (Sept-Oct 1918)

2014 M otion Picture N e to s Directory System of Picture Advertising Finds Development in Two Chicago Papers (Continued from page 2004) single productions or other news matter. The Daily News on Saturday has a combined amusement page and on this there are carried the legitimate theatre and vaudeville advertising and reading matter about amusements in general. Motion pictures are not represented in the layout and there is mighty little matter about the photoplay on the page. Now while we are discussing the Chicago situation let us look to what the other papers are doing. The Herald and Examiner on Sunday carries advertising from forty-four theatres, something on the order of the Tribune, but a little more given to display. There is a layout on the first-run attractions and general matter about the theatres and pictures. Every day this paper carries an interesting department conducted by Kitty Kelley. The American, evening edition of the Herald and Examiner, carries a daily column and a page in the Saturday edition. The Journal carries a Saturday page and an interesting daily department. These daily departments we will discuss next week. The Post has a Saturday page. Now it would seem that a newspaper that had made the success of the directory that has been made by both the Tribune and the Daily News would see the widespread interest in motion pictures and that they would provide the necessary space for the news of them. We wouldn't expect them to give the reading notices, even to the first-run houses, but certainly there should appear reviews of unusual attractions and news of what the people of the screen are doing. Certainly these papers have found that these directories which they print are worth a great deal to them from a circulation-holding point of view. Aside from the revenue that they bring in they are worth a great deal to the newspaper, and we'll bet that they would hesitate a long time to lose these. One can see at a glance the prestige that it gives a newspaper. Some one suggests going to a motion picture theatre. There is hesitancy about which one they will visit. " Let's look at the Tribune," suggests one, and they do and make their decision. This is the sort of a thing that makes a newspaper stand out in the community — because it is a real guide to the public, and a newspaper has to do that before it is a hundred per cent paper. If you would talk to the circulation manager of the Tribune we haven't the slightest doubt that he would tell you that this motion picture directory is one of the greatest aids that he has in holding circulation. And when such is the case we cannot see why the editorial department of the same newspaper cannot see the advantage of being recognized as THE motion picture newspaper of the city in its reading matter as well as advertising. We regard the Tribune as one of the greatest newspapers in the country, but certainly in this point it falls short. But at the same time it belongs in the same class with the biggest newspapers of New York, Boston and some of the other large cities, that have so far failed to see the value of this sort of matter. But this started in to be a discussion of the directory plan of advertising, and we think that the two papers cited have made a good showing along this line. It is a plan that we would like to see every newspaper adopt — PLUS a real motion picture department on Saturdays or Sundays and some motion picture NEWS matter every day of the week. With the reading notices eliminated and that much white space saved, it seems to us that the newspapers should be able to make a rate lower than the regular newspaper rate to the motion picture houses that agree to come in every day in the year. Now let us suppose that before the last few months the're. was only one newspaper in Chicago that would be printing any baseball news. Now Chicago has two baseball teams and the interest in the sport was high there. You can imagine the circulation of that one newspaper printing baseball news. You could readily see that every one of the people interested in baseball would buy that paper. Yet there are 345 motion picture houses in Chicago, and we know that there are ten times as many people who go to motion pictures daily as ever went to baseball on its biggest day. Then what do you think would be the result if there was one newspaper giving real attention to motion pictures and printing the real news. It seems that the answer should be that the paper that is doing this should get the bulk of the advertising. Of course, there are other things that enter into the problem, and such is not the case in Chicago. But that is due largely to peculiar conditions, and it is true in nine-tenths of the places where the plan is followed. But baseball is no more. We all know the way that the interest dropped once we got thoroughly into the war. But the motion picture is here, and it is not only as popular as ever, but it is essential to the nation. Every branch of the Government wants the motion picture to prosper, and it is being used more and more every week for Government purposes. The newspapers are without baseball now, but they have the motion picture with the greater interest. And if we owned a newspaper we would start out today on the directory plan to get the advertising of every house in the city, just a few lines from each if necessary, and then we would go before the public saying that this was a paper that everyone who went to motion pictures could not do without. We would say that it was as invaluable to the fan as the telephone book is to the business man. And the result would be pretty soon that you would be getting that newspaper into every home, and when you do that you are doing what every circulation manager hopes some day to accomplish. Then when you add to this directory the Unique Plan Used by Majestic Theatre Portland, Ore., with "My Own United States " — Ticket Booth Placed in Leading Department Store real news of the motion pictures you have the circle of interest completed. You have a newspaper that will interest everyone and a newspaper which every theatre that is going to prosper must use. THEY'RE COxMING So Let's Begin to ThinkAbout What We're Going to Do WE don't want to be discouraging, but Old Winter is on his way here, and the chances are that there is not going to be any too much coal for either heat or lighting. The theatre manager may have to add more pulling power to his theatre this winter than ever before. While we hope it won't occur again simply because of the physical inconveniences, we have heard from a number of exhibitors that the rules imposed last year really helped them, because it made them think, made them better their presentations, forced them to make their theatres the more attractive. And the great big things, the lavish expenditure of money are not the things that count so much. The " little things " are the ones that make your theatre the popular place There are lots of things that you are going to do. Is the season going to make you hunt your hole or make you get out and do things?