Sponsor (Jan-Mar 1960)

EN YEARS IN THE LIFE OF SPONSOR E c ialize in home readership (and how wives love it!). None f these concepts are copyrightable, and our innovations life now discernible throughout the trade field. I UR EDITORS ARE AGENCY-EDUCATED one in the advertising magazine field, SPONSOR is edited f men who have held executive posts at top advertising jjencies. John McMillin, executive editor, and Ben Bodec, jws editor (our two key editors), spent a total of 26 years Compton, J. Walter Thompson, Kenyon & Eckhardt, and tier large agencies. These men are exceptional analysts id writers. But more than that, they bring their readers 1 advertising understanding and know-how far beyond 'eative and mechanical skills. SPONSOR'S strength always is been in its product. Some 20 editors, the top nine of jihom average nearly seven years each at SPONSOR, are |si the job. E SPECIALIZE IN BEING USEFUL hen SPONSOR was beginning, extracting facts-and-figures am agency and advertiser sources was no mean feat. But e industry gradually has learned to share its secrets; and j've had a hand in this education. In the past year two [encies (Leo Burnett and N. W. Ayer) broke hush-hush ilicies by inviting us to analyze their operations and report rr findings with no holds barred. They must have liked e results; both ordered thousands of reprints. iHe information is the heart of SPONSOR'S editorial contort. Case histories, cost studies, research analyses, charts, Sid surveys of all kinds dot our pages. Standard for the dustry are such tools as Tv Basics, Radio Basics, All »jdia Evaluation Study, Network Comparagraph, Five-City rectory, Tv Dictionary, Timebuying Basics, Marketing Ba s, Annual Farm Issue, Annual Negro Issue, Timebuyers the U. S. In November, 1959 our Readers' Service an fered 225 agency/advertiser questions. :, E INFLUENCE THE INFLUENTIAL 7,500 t^DNSOR's target, editorial and circulation, is some 7,500 tj;ency and advertiser executives whom we consider worth f, aching because they participate to some degree in air lying decisions. Of these, perhaps 2,000 — largely time buyers — are of major importance. Our task is not only to reach but to truly influence the 7,500. This is a tall order. These are busy people who must pick their reading matter with care. It takes a penetrating use book which covers the weekly essentials (and avoids the non-essentials) to register. SPONSOR registers so well that in 1959 we averaged close to 100 paid subscribers at such prominent spot-buying agencies as Young & Rubicam. BBDO. McCann-Erickson. and J. Walter Thompson. These are signs of our progress as we enter our fourteenth year. There are others. For example, in 1959 our renewal percentage climbed 14% over the previous year; newspaper and magazine publicity mentions tripled; advertising income reached an all-time high; new surveys appeared which attested to our continuing leadership among agencies and idvertisers. And in June, 1959 we began publication of CANADIAN SPONSOR, a biweekly edited in Toronto. JLD RATES IN 1960 FOR OLD ADVERTISERS 1960 brings an advertising rate increase, the first since 1957. But it's our wish that we give old advertisers a break. So we have decided to guarantee current contract advertisers our old rates until 1 January, 1961. We have many plans afoot for 1960. Not the least of these is the further professionalizing of our sales and sales pro motion departments, two operations which have taken a back seat as we've gone all-out on improving our editorial product. So you can expect to hear more about our advertising values* and see us more often during 1960. I hope that this report tells you what you want to know about SPONSOR. If we've omitted anything, please drop me a line and I'll do my best to furnish the fill-in SINCERELY, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER •A presentation explaining trade paper values (1960 vintage) has just been completed by our promotion department We'd like to show it to you. May we' SPONSOR The magazine radio/tv advertisers use 40 E. 49th St. (49 & Madison) New York 17, N. Y. Telephone: MUrray Hill 8-2772