FEBRUARY 



1S9S. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



429 



/f rr-,^.- \ 



Views in tiie West End Store of Ellison & Tesson, St. Louis. 



■would be promptly turned down as 

 simply a reading notice that should be 

 paid for. 



The question resolves itself into an 

 understanding of what is news from a 

 newspaper man's standpoint, and an 

 organization that contains a consid- 

 erable number of people who are not 

 interested in floriculture commercially 



will give the organization a much bet- 

 ter standing with the newspapers than 

 one which is pairely commercial in 

 character. In other words, if Mr. John 

 Smith, the real estate dealer, is inter- 

 ested in flowers as a pastime, the fact 

 that he has added considerably to his 

 collection of plants, etc., would be an 

 item of news to the average newspaper 



man, but if Mr. Smith had simply done 

 some extra business in real estate it 

 would be considered advertising rather 

 than news. 



A decided help to the committee in 

 charge of the advertising is what Is 

 known as a press agent. He is usu- 

 ally a man who has at one time been a 

 reporter on a daily paper and who is 

 capable of writing what is called an 

 attractive story. Long experience has 

 told him what editors are apt to let 

 pass as news matter, and not only what 

 will appeal to them in a general way 

 as news, but he is generally familiar 

 with the peculiarities of the various 

 editors in the city. It is an old saying 

 of reporters that they write for their 

 editor rather than for the general pub- 

 lic. In other words, they do not al- 

 ways write what they think would in- 

 terest the general public, but what 

 they think will conform to the ideas 

 of the man who is to edit their copy. 

 It can readily be seen that knowledge 

 of this character cannot be acquired 

 by any one in another line of business, 

 and this is where the press agent, if 

 he is worthy the name, has a very 

 great advantage over any other man, 

 no matter how brilliant he may be. 



The press agent should also advise 

 in regard to the advertising, but it is 

 not always safe to take his advice. He 

 may be of the type that requires a 

 rake-off for himself, and he may en- 

 deavor to induce the committee to ex- 

 pend the money in directions which 

 will enable him to get the rake-off 

 and which would not be to the advan- 

 tage of the exhibition. If the adver- 

 tising appropriation were quite limit- 

 ed, I would suggest that it be con- 

 fined entirely to the newspapers, ex- 

 cept what was needed to print some 

 small posters that Could be hung up in 

 the florists' stores. I am convinced 

 that the large display poster on dead 

 walls, etc., does not give value for the 

 money, and I place little reliance on 

 the smaller posters which are placed 

 in general store windows and other 

 places conducted by people who have 

 no direct interest in the exhibition. 



Street car advertising seems to be 

 good if you always get what you pay 

 for. It is, however, very difficult to 

 check up the bills of the man supply- 

 ing the street car advertising. He will 

 tell you that he will place the card in 

 all the cars on certain lines, and when 

 he brings you the contract to sign, it 

 will specify a certain number of cars. 

 If you have stepped into a number of 

 cars and found that the card is not 

 there, and make a complaint he will 

 explain that a few extra cars were put 

 on that line that day and that is the 

 reason you did not find your card in 

 them. He will assert that the card 

 appears in the number of cars you had 

 contracted for, and he will exhibit a 

 string of car numbers about a yard 

 long and suavely request you to check 

 it up. To a man who can find barely a 

 moment to spare at the time, this re- 

 quest is anything but humorous. 

 But the story could be drawn out to 



